THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 


AMERICAN   INDIAN   WEAVING 

(From  a  photograph  by  George  R.  King) 

A  woman  of  the  Navajo  Indians  at  Canyon  de  Chelley,  near  Gallup,  New 
Mexico,  United  States,  weaving  a  blanket  with  yarn  she  has  carded  and 
spun  of  wool  from  sheep  raised  by  her  tribe,  and  dyed  with  fast  colors  which 
the  Navajos  make  of  native  vegetables.  These  Indians,  who  raise  thou- 
sands of  sheep  and  horses  and  are  also  skilled  as  primitive  silversmiths, 
decorate  their  blankets  with  rude-colored  designs,  and  weave  them  so 
closely  that  often  the  blankets  will  hold  water.  It  illustrates  a  most  primi- 
tive form  of  weaving  that  has  been  practised  for  centuries. 


THE 

STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

A  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  THE   HISTORY 

OF  THE  BEGINNING  AND  THE 

GROWTH  OF  THE  INDUSTRY 

BY  WHICH  MANKIND 

IS  CLOTHED 


BY 

PERRY    WALTON 


\  •  V  •;•?*,  .'• 


COMPILED   AND  WRITTEN  FOB 

JOHN  S.  LAWRENCE 

BOSTON,  MASS. 


fs/ 

v) 


COPYRIGHTED  1912 
BY  JOHN  S.  LAWRENCE 


COMPILED,  WRITTEN,  AND  PRINTED  BY  DIRECTION  OF  THE 

WALTON  ADVERTISING  AND  PRINTING  COMPANY, 

BOSTON,  MASSACHUSETTS 


FOREWORD 


As  clothing  has  from  time  immemorial  been  one  of  man's 
necessities  and  almost  as  essential  to  his  welfare  as  food, 
it  is  not  surprising  that  the  textile  industry  has  long  in 
value  of  output  been  second  only  to  the  production  of  food- 
stuffs. Important,  however,  as  the  industry  is,  its  history, 
so  far  as  the  writer  knows,  has  never,  at  least  in  America, 
been  published.  Aside  from  its  importance  the  industry 
possesses  much  of  interest  not  only  for  the  student,  but  also 
for  the  man  of  affairs.  Different  branches  of  the  industry, 
such  as  wool,  silk,  cotton,  and  linen,  have  been  treated 
separately,  but  nothing  has  been  written  about  the  origin 
and  growth  of  the  industry  as  a  whole. 

This  book,  of  which  some  explanation  is  necessary,  is  an 
effort  to  fill  this  gap.  Although  a  complete  history  of  the 
industry  has  not  been  the  aim  of  the  writer  nor  the  desire 
of  the  publisher,  the  purpose  has  been  to  present  to  those 
interested  in  the  textile  industry  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the 
leading  facts  which  have  marked  the  progress  of  the  industry 
up  to  the  firm  establishment  of  the  manufacture  of  textiles 
on  American  soil,  together  with  such  intervening  facts  as 
are  necessary  to  give  one  a  comprehensive  view  of  the 
subject. 

The  book  deals  largely  with  the  development  in  England 
and  America,  because  in  these  two  countries  originated 
the  inventions  that  have  brought  the  industry  to  its  present 
efficiency,  and  in  them  also  was  evolved  the  factory  system 


M±53i23 


4  FOREWORD 

which  has  so  greatly  revolutionized  social  life  in  England 
and  America. 

All  of  the  facts  have  been  verified  by  careful  investiga- 
tion, some  of  which  has  gone  back  to  original  sources.  As 
far  as  it  goes,  this  brief  history  endeavors  to  be  authoritative 
and  comprehensive.  Much  attention  is  given  to  the  Ameri- 
can development,  particularly  that  relating  to  the  cotton 
industry. 

To  cover  the  subject  as  it  deserves  would  require  more 
space  than  could  be  contained  in  a  single  volume.  And, 
while  a  more  complete  history  might  be  more  interesting 
to  the  student,  it  would  be  less  so  to  the  textile  man  for 
whom  this  has  been  primarily  written,  because  of  the  nec- 
essary introduction  of  a  mass  of  minor  details  that  would 
be  too  tedious  for  him  to  peruse.  The  writer  hopes  that  the 
man  interested  in  the  textile  business,  whether  he  be  a 
manufacturer  or  a  clerk  behind  the  counter,  may  obtain 
from  these  pages  a  clear  view  of  the  development  of  America's 
leading  industry,  without  having  to  give  the  subject  the 
time  that  a  fuller  narrative  would  require. 

Mr.  John  S.  Lawrence,  for  whom  this  book  has  been 
prepared  and  by  whom  it  is  published,  is  a  partner  of  the 
firm  of  Lawrence  &  Co.,  one  of  the  largest  commission 
houses  for  the  distribution  of  textile  products  in  America. 
Many  of  its  former  members  have  filled  important  places 
in  the  establishment  of  the  industry  in  the  great  textile 
centres  of  America. 

The  writer  desires  to  acknowledge  the  courtesy  shown 
in  facilitating  the  preparation  of  this  book  by  C.  J.  H. 
Woodbury,  Sc.D.,  secretary  of  the  National  Association  of 
Cotton  Manufacturers;  L.  W.  Jenkins,  Curator  of  Ethnol- 
ogy, Peabody  Museum,  Salem,  Mass.;  W.  P.  Wilson, 
Sc.D.,  Director  Commercial  Museum,  Philadelphia;  Miss 


FOREWORD  5 

S.  G.  Flint,  of  the  Textile  Department  of  the  Museum 
of  Fine  Arts,  Boston,  Mass.;  and  also  to  acknowledge  his 
indebtedness  to  the  following  authorities:  "Silk  Industry 
in  America,"  by  L.  P.  Brockett;  "Manual  of  Power," 
by  Samuel  Webber;  "Loom  and  Spindle,"  by  Mrs.  Harriet 
Hanson  Robinson;  "Illustrated  History  of  Lowell,"  by 
Charles  Cowley;  "Introduction  of  the  Power  Loom  and 
Origin  of  Lowell,"  by  Nathan  Appleton;  "Draper's  Dic- 
tionary," by  W.  Beck;  "The  American  Cotton  Industry," 
by  T.  M.  Young;  "Introduction  and  Early  Progress  of  the 
Cotton  Manufacture  in  the  United  States,"  by  Samuel 
Batchelder;  "The  Textile  Industries  of  the  United  States," 
by  William  R.  Bagnall;  "History  of  the  Cotton  Manufac- 
ture in  Great  Britain,"  by  Edward  Baines;  "Fabrilla:  A 
Substitute  for  Cotton,"  by  Stephen  Merrill  Allen;  "Histor- 
ical Sketch  of  the  Town  of  Pawtucket,"  by  Rev.  Massena 
Goodrich;  "The  First  Cotton  Mill  in  America"  (in  Essex 
Institute  Historical  Collections),  by  Robert  S.  Rantoul; 
"A  Compendious  History  of  the  Cotton  Manufacture,"  by 
Richard  Guest;  "History  of  Lynn,"  by  A.  Lewis  and  J.  R. 
Newhall;  "Economic  and  Social  History  of  New  Eng- 
land," by  William  B.  Weeden;  "Lancashire  Worthies,"  by 
Francis  Espinasse;  "Brief  Biographies  of  Inventors  of  Ma- 
chines for  Textile  Fabrics,"  by  Bennet  Woodcroft;  "Life 
and  Times  of  Samuel  Crompton,"  by  G.  J.  French;  "Me- 
moir of  Cartwright,"  by  his  daughter;  "History  of  Law- 
rence," compiled  by  H.  A.  Wadsworth;  "Annals  of 
Providence,"  by  William  R.  Staples;  "History  of  New 
Bedford,"  by  Leonard  Bolles  Ellis;  "History  of  Manches- 
ter," by  Maurice  D.  Clarke;  "The  Cotton  Industry,"  by 
W.  B.  Hammond;  "The  Cotton  Manufacture  of  Great 
Britain,"  by  Andrew  Ure;  "Memoir  of  Patrick  Tracy 
Jackson,"  by  John  A.  Lowell;  "Memoir  of  Samuel  Slater," 


6  FOREWORD 

by  George  S.  White;  "Memoir  of  Eli  Whitney,"  by  Den- 
ison  Olmstead;  "The  Factory,"  by  Jonathan  Thayer  Lin- 
coln; "State  of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Plantations 
at  the  End  of  the  Century,"  by  Edward  Field;  "History 
of  Philadelphia,"  by  Scharf  and  Westcott;  Chambers's 
"Book  of  Days";  "A  Comprehensive  History  of  the  Woolen 
and  Worsted  Manufactures,"  by  James  Bischoff;  and  "His- 
tory of  Manufactures,"  by  Bishop;  also  "The  Report  of 
the  Tariff  Board  on  Schedule  K"  and  articles  in  the  En- 
cyclopaedia Britannica,  Universal  Encyclopaedia,  Encyclo- 
paedia Americana,  the  Textile  Manufacturers9  Journal,  the 
Textile  World  Record,  the  Fall  River  Herald,  the  Fall 
River  News,  and  the  various  census  reports  relating  to 
linen,  wool,  cotton,  and  silk. 

Thanks  are  also  due  The  Macmillan  Company  and  the 
Houghton  Mifflin  Company  for  permission  to  use  reproduc- 
tions of  illustrations  from  their  publications;  also  to  Job  L. 
Spencer  for  the  illustration  of  the  Old  Slater  Mill,  from 
a  sketch  by  his  son;  to  the  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society 
for  the  courtesy  extended  in  securing  the  portrait  of 
Moses  Brown;  to  the  New  Haven  Colony  Historical  So- 
ciety for  the  portrait  of  Eli  Whitney;  and  for  the  facilities 
extended  in  the  preparation  of  this  work  by  The  Commer- 
cial Museum,  Philadelphia;  A.  H.  Baldwin,  Chief  of  the 
Bureau  of  the  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor, 
Washington,  D.C.;  Dr.  F.  H.  Bowman,  of  Manchester, 
England;  Miss  Henrietta  C.  Cattanach;  Miss  N.  L.  King- 
man;  George  R.  King;  Chicopee  Manufacturing  Company, 
Chicopee  Falls,  Mass.;  the  Draper  Company,  Hopedale, 
Mass.;  and  to  Potomska  Mills,  New  Bedford,  Mass. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

CHAPTER  I 
BEGINNING  OF  TEXTILES 13 

Prehistoric  Evidences  of  the  Art — Textile  Industry  among 
the  Ancients — Early  Existence  in  North  and  South  America — 
The  West's  Textile  Indebtedness  to  the  East. 

CHAPTER  H 

FLAX,  LINEN,  WOOL,  COTTON,  AND  SILK 24 

Flax  and  Linen — History  of  Linen — Production  of  Flax  and 
Linen — Wool — Efforts  to  improve  Wool— Early  Use  of  Wool 
— Cotton,  the  Plant,  Growth,  and  Distribution — Early  His- 
tory— Columbus  and  Cotton — Silk — Early  History  of  Silk — 
Silk  Industry  in  America. 

CHAPTER  HI 
FACTORY  SYSTEM 59 

Growth  of  the  Factory  System — Earliest  Record  of  English 
Factory — English  Names  derived  from  Industry — Causes  of 
the  Concentration  in  Lancaster — Separation  of  Agriculture  and 
Spinning  and  Weaving — Early  Relationship  of  Employer  and 
Employee — Inventions  and  the  Factory  System — Influence  of 
Factory  on  English  Social  Life. 

CHAPTER  IV 
ERA  OF  INVENTION 71 

Era  of  Invention — Early  Improvements  in  Textile  Machinery 
— John  Kay — Paul  and  Wyatt — James  Hargreaves — Richard 
Arkwright — Samuel  Crompton — Edmund  Cartwright — Inven- 
tions of  Knitting  Machines — Ipswich  Mills — Joseph  Marie 
Charles  Jacquard — Machines  for  spinning  Flax — James  Watt 
— Eli  Whitney — Improvements  of  the  Basic  Machines,  and 
Further  Inventions — Bleaching — Dyeing — Printing — Merceriz- 
ing Process. 


8  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  V 
AMERICAN  INDUSTRY  BEFORE  THE  REVOLUTION 122 

American  Industry — Earliest  Traces  of  the  Industry — Foster- 
ing Legislation — First  Cloth  made  and  First  Mill  erected  at 
Rowley — Slave  Traffic  and  Importations — English  Efforts  to 
hamper  the  Industry — First  Worsted  Mill — Skill  attained  in 
Textile  Work — Bounties  and  Monopolies  to  stimulate  the  In- 
dustry— The  Spinning  Craze — Approach  of  the  Revolution — 
Improvements  in  English  Textile  Machinery — Condition  of 
the  Market  immediately  after  the  Revolution — American 
Effort  to  secure  English  Machines — England  and  Cotton — 
Starting  of  Cotton  Cultivation  in  the  South — Origin  of  Sea 
Island  Cotton  and  Beginning  of  its  Cultivation  in  the  South. 

CHAPTER  VI 

AMERICAN  INDUSTRY  AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION  AND  BEFORE 

SLATER 148 

First  Manufacturing  in  Pennsylvania — First  Cotton  Mill  in 
New  England— First  Textile  Trade-mark— First  Textile  Ad- 
vertising— Boston  Sail  Cloth  Factory — Commencement  of 
the  Cotton  Industry  in  Rhode  Island— First  Woolen  Mill- 
Washington  inaugurated  in  Suit  of  Domestic  Woolen — First 
Woolen  Mill  operated  with  Power  Machinery. 

CHAPTER  VII 
ERA  OF  SAMUEL  SLATER 168 

Slater's  Arrival  in  America — Goes  to  Providence — Starts  First 
Cotton  Mill  with  Arkwright's  Machines  in  America — Payment 
and  Discipline  of  Employees — Starts  his  Second  Mill;  the 
First  with  Arkwright  Machinery  in  Massachusetts — First  Com- 
mission Houses — Shepard  starts  Mill  at  Wrentham — Other 
Mills  start— Whittenton  Cotton  Mills— Start  of  the  Industry 
in  Connecticut — Spread  of  Industry  through  Influence  of 
Slater — Gilmore's  Loom — Beginning  of  Power  Woolen  Mills 
in  Rhode  Island — Southern  Development. 


CONTENTS  9 

PAGE 


CHAPTER 
ERA  OF  LOWELL,  APPLETON,  MOODY,  JACKSON,  AND  BOOTT,     192 

First  Complete  Cotton  Mill  in  the  World  —  Lowell  visits  Eng- 
lish Mills  —  Organization  of  the  Boston  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany —  Care  of  Employees  —  Sale  of  Goods  —  Waltham  versus 
Rhode  Island  System  of  Manufacturing  —  The  Foundation  of 
the  City  of  Lowell  and  the  Starting  of  the  Merrimac  Manu- 
facturing Company  —  Naming  of  Lowell  —  Starting  of  First 
Mills. 

CHAPTER  IX 
OTHER  TEXTILE  CENTRES  ........    .......     210 

Philadelphia  the  Greatest  Textile-producing  City  of  America 
—  Silk  Industry  in  Philadelphia  —  Development  of  the  Woolen 
Industry  —  Textile  Machinery  —  Carpet  Industry  —  Later 
Growth  —  Foundation  of  Lawrence  —  Beginning  of  Fall  River 
—Colonel  Durfee's  Mill—  The  Troy  and  Fall  River  Mills- 
Early  Looms,  Work,  and  Wages  —  Other  Companies  —  Provi- 
dence —  Paterson,  N.J.  —  New  Bedford  —  Manchester  —  Amos- 
keag  lays  out  a  Town  —  New  York  —  Amsterdam  —  Woonsocket, 
R.I.  —  Conclusion. 

INDEX     .......................     253 

ERRATA  .  275 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


AMERICAN  INDIAN  WEAVING Frontispiece 

Facing  Page 

WARRIOR  OF  GILBERT  ISLANDS,  SOUTH  PACIFIC  OCEAN   .    .  13 
GREEK  AND  ROMAN  METHOD  OF  SPINNING  AND  WEAVING    .  16 
NAVAJO  WOMAN  MAKING  YARN  OF  NATIVE  WOOL  ....  20 
SPECIMENS  OF  NORTH    DAKOTA    GROWN   RUSSIAN    SEED- 
FLAX;  CUTTING  HEMP 24 

LINEN  MUMMY  CLOTHS 28 

EGYPTIAN  TUNIC;   PERUVIAN  TUNIC 32 

THE  COTTON  PLANT 36 

FABRICS  WOVEN  BY  THE  BAKUBA  TRIBE 40 

THE   EGGS,  CATERPILLAR,   COCOONS  AND   MOTH   OF   THE 

SILKWORM 44 

ENLARGED  REPRODUCTIONS  OF  TEXTILE  FIBRES 48 

JAPANESE  SPINNING  AND  WEAVING 52 

THE  MULE 56 

ANCIENT  EGYPTIANS  SPINNING  AND  WEAVING 60 

BOWING  OF  COTTON,  AS  PRACTISED  IN  INDIA  AND  CHINA;  A 
HINDU    WOMAN    SPINNING    COTTON    YARN    ON    THE 

PRIMITIVE  WHEEL  OF  INDIA 64 

DOMESTIC  FLAX  WHEEL;  HINDU  SPINNING  AND  WEAVING,  68 

HINDU  WTEAVER  AT  HIS  LOOM 72 

JOHN  KAY 76 

SIR  RICHARD  ARKWRIGHT 80 

SAMUEL  CROMPTON 84 

DR.  EDMUND  CARTWRIGHT      88 

CARTWRIGHT'S  LOOM 92 

AMOS  A.  LAWRENCE  96 


12  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Facing  Page 

ELI  WHITNEY 100 

DISTAFF  SPINNING 106 

HANDICRAFT  CARDING,    ROVING,  AND    SPINNING    BY   THE 

HAND  WHEEL 112 

PEG  WARPING 118 

WARPING 124 

THE  LOOM  THAT  PRECEDED  THE  POWER  LOOM 130 

HIGH'S  JENNY 136 

THE  IMPROVED  JENNY 142 

A  HANDICRAFT  WEAVER  AT  HER  LOOM 148 

ARKWRIGHT'S  ORIGINAL  WATER  FRAME  WITH  THE  SPECIFI- 
CATIONS  ON   THE   ORIGINAL   PATENT   PAPERS   TAKEN 

OUT  BY  HIM  ON  JULY  15,  1769 154 

THE  OLD  SLATER  MILL,  PAWTUCKET,  R.  1 160 

CARDING,  DRAWING,  AND  ROVING  AS  IT  WAS  IN  SAMUEL 

SLATER'S  EARLY  MILLS 166 

SAMUEL  SLATER 172 

MOSES  BROWN 178 

WASHINGTON'S   VISIT   TO   THE   FIRST    COTTON    MILL   AT 

BEVERLY,  MASS.,  OCT.  30,  1789 184 

FRANCIS  C.  LOWELL 190 

NATHAN  APPLETON 196 

P.  T.  JACKSON 202 

A  MODERN  MULE  SPINNING-ROOM 208 

SAMUEL  WETHERILL 214 

ABBOTT  LAWRENCE 220 

INTERIOR  VIEW  OF  A  MODERN  RING  SPINNING-MILL  .    .    .  226 

AMOS  LAWRENCE 232 

INTERIOR  VIEW  OF  A  MODERN  WEAVE-ROOM 238 

MODERN  AUTOMATIC  NORTHROP  LOOMS  .  244 


ci. 


WARRIOR  OF  THE  GILBERT   ISLANDS,   SOUTH   PACIFIC  OCEAN 

(From  an  Exhibit  in  the  Peabody  Museum,  Salem,  Mass.) 

His  armor  is  woven  of  cocoanut  fibre,  and  is  a  protection  against  the 
native  weapons  which  are  edged  with  swords'  teeth.  The  mat  at  his  back 
is  a  protection  against  stones  thrown  at  the  enemy  by  the  warrior's  wife, 
who  follows  in  the  rear.  This  shows  a  most  primitive  form  of  weaving. 


THE 
STORY   OF  TEXTILES 

CHAPTER  I 

BEGINNING  OF  TEXTILES 

PREHISTORIC  EVIDENCES  OF  THE  ART — TEXTILE  INDUSTRY  AMONG 
THE  ANCIENTS EARLY  EXISTENCE  IN  NORTH  AND  SOUTH  AMER- 
ICA  THE  WEST'S  TEXTILE  INDEBTEDNESS  TO  THE  EAST 

A  bit  of  cloth — whether  it  be  woolen  or  cotton,  linen  or 
silk — is  one  of  the  most  interesting  evidences  of  man's 
climb  from  days  of  savagery  to  twentieth-century  civiliza- 
tion. 

As  one  notes  how  finely  spun  and  how  intricately  woven 
are  the  threads  and  how  beautiful  often  is  the  design,  the 
wonder  grows  that  a  piece  of  cloth  can  be  so  dexterously 
fashioned.  And  yet,  as  one  reads  of  the  painstaking  efforts 
— spread  over  many  centuries — which  man  has  put  forth 
to  attain  perfection  in  spinning  and  weaving,  the  wonder 
fades  into  admiration  for  the  infinite  pains  he  has  taken 
to  perfect  the  art.  Civilization's  pathway  is  strewn  with 
the  evidences  of  the  labor  to  compass  a  mastery  of  the  in- 
dustry. Older  far  than  recorded  history  is  the  tale  of  fabrics. 

To  find  its  beginning,  we  must  go  beyond  the  dawn  of 
history  into  the  darkness  of  prehistoric  times;  for,  when  man 
first  began  to  scratch  his  deeds  on  the  rocks  of  his  dwelling- 
place,  fabrics,  more  or  less  perfect,  were  being  fashioned, 
ornamented,  and  dyed. 

Even  the  archaeologist  cannot  fully  enlighten  us.  No 
matter  how  deeply  he  may  delve  into  the  most  remote  past 


14  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

to  which  he  can  sink  the  plummet  of  his  research,  evidences 
of  spinning  and  weaving  are  found  among  the  vestiges  of 
the  rude  home  of  prehistoric  man. 


PREHISTORIC  EVIDENCES  OP  THE  ART 

The  art  was  practised  in  the  earliest  Stone  Age.  How 
much  farther  back  it  was  a  domestic  art  it  is  impossible 
to  learn,  owing  to  the  perishable  nature  of  the  materials 
from  which  many  fabrics  were  fashioned.  According  to 
some  authorities  it  may  have  been  contemporaneous  with 
the  discovery  of  fire  for  cooking  and  the  building  of  shelter. 
Others  are  sure  it  is  older  than  the  fashioning  of  domestic 
utensils  by  the  art  of  Pottery. 

It  is  believed  that  sinews  and  intestines  of  animals,  strips 
of  skin,  flax,  hemp,  wool,  the  bast  of  the  linden,  and  the 
fibre  of  the  palm  and  cocoanut  and  other  trees,  and  various 
wild  grasses  were  used  in  the  making  of  mats,  baskets, 
nets,  and  rude  fabrics  at  the  dawn  of  the  earliest  era  of  the 
Stone  Age,  if  not  before, — many  thousands  of  years  before 
the  beginning  of  civilization. 

Evidences  of  the  industry  have  also  been  found  among 
prehistoric  or  savage  races  in  parts  of  the  world  so  widely 
separated  that  it  is  quite  certain  a  knowledge  of  the  industry 
sprang  up  independently,  in  different  places. 

It  is  fair  to  conjecture  that  thousands  of  years  before  the 
dawn  of  civilization  some  savage  matron,  sitting  in  front  of 
the  cave  or  rude  hut  which  sheltered  her,  wove  the  original 
basket  from  the  rushes  of  a  brook  that  perchance  may 
have  gurgled  at  her  feet,  or  may  have  cut  strips  of  skin  from 
the  animal  her  lord  and  master  had  slain,  and  plaited  them 
into  the  original  fabric  that  was  the  beginning  of  textiles. 
It  does  not  require  much  stretch  of  the  imagination  to  con- 
ceive of  this  taking  place  in  the  different  parts  of  the  world 
where  the  industry  began. 

Flax  fabrics  dating  back  to  a  period  thousands  of  years 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  15 

ago  have  been  unearthed  in  England.  The  ruins  of  the 
Lake  Dwellers  of  the  Stone  Age  in  Switzerland  have  pro- 
duced them.  Textiles  of  much  beauty  that  belong  thousands 
of  years  before  Christ  have  been  discovered  among  the 
earliest  ruins  of  Peru,  Mexico,  and  Egypt,  and  in  the  cave 
dwellings  of  New  Mexico  and  Arizona. 

The  ruins  of  the  Swiss  Lake  Dwellers,  which  were  dis- 
covered in  the  winter  of  1853-54,  abundantly  prove  that 
the  art  was  known  in  the  earliest  era  of  the  Stone  Age, — 
the  period  of  the  mammoth  and  cave  bear.  The  winter 
of  1853-54  was  cold  and  so  very  dry  that  water  in  the 
alpine  lakes  of  both  Switzerland  and  Northern  Italy  re- 
ceded so  far  that  the  dwellers  on  many  of  them  saw  evidences 
of  ancient  dwellings  built  on  poles  projecting  from  the  lakes. 
Some  sections  were  dyked,  and  many  excavations  com- 
menced which  unearthed  village  after  village  that  had  been 
covered  by  the  mud  of  centuries.  Wangen  in  Lake  Con- 
stance, a  village  in  Lake  Mosseedorf,  Robenhausen  in  the 
bog  of  Lake  Pfaffikon,  and  Auvernier  in  Lake  Neuchatel 
were  the  most  interesting. 

Some  of  the  lowest  villages  were  many  feet  down,  and 
belonged  to  the  earliest  Stone  Age.  In  them  were  found 
crude  but  serviceable  fabrics  of  bast,  flax,  and  wool,  and 
signs  that  the  growth  and  manufacture  of  cloth  of  flax  and 
wool  at  so  early  a  date  was  an  important  industry.  Spindle 
whorls  were  without  number.  Flax  in  all  stages,  from  the 
unprepared  straw  with  seed  capsules  in  perfect  preservation 
to  excellent  specimens  of  plaited  and  woven  fabrics,  was 
unearthed,  and  some  of  it  was  ornamented  with  rude  human 
figures.  Strings,  yarns  of  flax  in  bales  ready  for  the  spinners, 
rope  and  cordage,  were  also  found. 

Specimens  of  these  fabrics  may  be  seen  in  many  museums, 
and  show  that  the  Lake  Dwellers  of  the  oldest  Stone  Era 
plaited,  wattled,  and  wove  cloth,  and  knew  all  the  opera- 
tions, from  binding  and  tying,  basket  and  mat  plaiting,  to 
weaving.  Basket  making  on  a  finer  scale,  with  the  flax 


16  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

twisted  into  a  thread,  probably  led  to  the  textile  industry 
which  these  prehistoric  people  practised. 

So  perfected  had  the  industry  become  by  the  time  the 
Bronze  Age  arrived  that  rude  spindles  and  looms  were 
employed  which  were  very  similar  to  those  used  to-day 
by  some  of  the  uncivilized  tribes,  and  the  art  had  reached 
a  state  where  various  designs  were  worked  into  the  fabric 
with  needle  and  thread. 

Evidences  of  a  similar  textile  industry  have  been  found 
in  the  barrows  of  the  early  Bretons,  where  bodies  were 
discovered  that  were  wrapped  in  plaited  woolen  cloth. 
Similar  fabrics,  of  an  era  so  many  thousands  of  years  ago 
that  archaeologists  cannot  accurately  fix  the  date,  have  been 
discovered  in  the  homes  of  the  ancient  Cliff  Dwellers  of 
South-western  America. 


TEXTILE  INDUSTRY  AMONG  THE  ANCIENTS 

At  the  dawn  of  history,  wool,  flax,  cotton,  and  silk  were 
being  woven  in  the  East  with  the  greatest  skill,  and  which 
was  the  first  material  used  in  weaving  is  not  known.  It 
is  probable,  however,  that  the  possession  of  flocks  and  herds 
led  to  the  spinning  and  weaving  of  wool  before  either  cotton, 
flax  or  silk  was  so  used;  and  the  fact  that  here  and  there 
ancient  records  speak  of  fabrics  of  cotton  and  silk  as  if  they 
were  rare  luxuries  would  indicate  that  linen  and  woolen 
fabrics  were  too  common  to  receive  much  attention,  and 
that  those  of  the  other  materials  were  relatively  novel. 

The  earliest  ancient  history  describes  Eastern  nations 
as  having  already  attained  a  high  degree  of  skill,  not  only 
in  the  spinning  and  weaving  of  fabrics,  but  in  their  dyeing 
and  ornamentation.  On  the  walls  of  Nineveh,  Babylon, 
Thebes,  and  the  ancient  cities  of  Peru  and  Mexico,  through- 
out most  of  the  ruins  of  Assyria,  Persia,  Egypt,  and  among 
similar  ruins  of  both  North  and  South  America,  is  depicted 
the  whole  process  of  the  textile  industry,  from  the  raising 


GREEK    AND   ROMAN   METHOD  OF  SPINNING   AND   WEAVING 

(From  old  woodcuts) 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  17 

of  the  sheep  or  growing  of  the  flax  to  the  spinning  of  the 
yarn  and  weaving  of  the  fabrics. 

The  Bible  in  Genesis  and  Exodus  refers  to  the  art, 
Homer,  Herodotus,  Confucius,  and  Pliny,  all  relate  tradi- 
tions of  how  and  when  it  originated.  It  is  a  fact  estab- 
lished by  thousands  of  hieroglyphics  and  confirmed  by  the 
oldest  of  Eastern  historians  that  the  Chinese,  Hindus, 
Assyrians,  Babylonians,  Persians,  Egyptians,  and  Hebrews 
practised  spinning  and  weaving  with  great  skill  at  a  very 
remote  period. 

One  Chinese  tradition  is  that  sflk  weaving  was  practised 
in  Kiang  Nan,  China,  in  &64?0  B.C.  Another  is  that  cotton 
originated  in  India,  and  that  shawls  and  carpets  were 
first  woven  in  Persia.  Fabrics  of  wonderful  excellence 
were  wrought  by  the  Egyptians  certainly  twenty-five  hun- 
dred years  before  Christ,  and  probably  three  thousand.  At 
this  early  period  the  dwellers  along  the  Nile  wove  linen 
cloth  of  a  fineness  that  is  still  unequalled.  About  one 
Egyptian  mummy  was  found  linen  doth  containing  540 
warp  threads  to  the  inch,  whSe  the  best  woven  in  England 
up  to  a  recent  date  had  but  350  threads  to  the  inch. 

It  is  said  that  the  Egyptians  put  a  shuttle  in  the  hands 
of  their  goddess  Isis  to  signify  she  was  the  inventress  of 
weaving.  Joseph  in  Genesis  about  1600  B.C.  •ffWilff  that 
Pharaoh  "arrayed  him  in  vestures  of  fine  linen."  Another 
early  reference  to  weaving  is  in  the  Bible  (Leviticus  xiii. 
47-59)  which  speaks  of  the  warp  and  woof  of  woolen  and 
linen  garments,  their  defilement  from  leprosy,  and  the 
necessity  of  their  being  burned  by  the  priest,  and  shows 
that  in  1500  B.C.  the  Israelites  knew  the  art.  Mummy 
cloths  from  the  pyramids  have  borders  of  blue  and  fawn 
color  which  were  made  of  threads  colored  in  the  yarn. 
Fabrics  of  many  textures  and  degrees  of  fineness  were 
coin TII only  used  by  the  Egyptians  for  clothing,  draperies, 
banners,  and  for  many  ceremonial  uses.  Wool,  flax,  and 
cotton  were  all  known  and  used  by  the  Egyptians,  as 


18  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

their  tombs  attest;  an$l  the  "process  of  dyeing  was  well 
established. 

According  to  Pliny,  the  Assyrians;  believed  Queen  Se- 
miramis  invented  weaving,  although  he  gives  the  honor 
of  the  invention  to  the  Egyptians.  Among  the  Greeks, 
Minerva  is  shown  with  a  distaff,  and  is  recognized  as  having 
first  taught  man  the  art.  Again,  the  Mohammedans  say 
that  the  art  originated  with  a  son  of  Japhet;  while  the 
Peruvians  point  to  Mama  Ocllo,  wife  of  Manco  Capac, 
their  first  sovereign,  as  the  originator.  The  absence  of  any 
authentic  written  records  means  unmistakably  that  it  was 
prehistoric  among  different  peoples  about  the  same  time. 

Homer,  the  Greek  poet,  who  lived  850  B.C.,  was  the  first 
historical  writer  to  tell  of  weaving.  He  describes  Penelope 
waiting  for  the  return  of  her  husband  Ulysses  from  the 
Trojan  War.  Ulysses  had  endeavored  to  escape  being 
called  to  war  by  feigning  madness,  but  his  trick  was  dis- 
covered, and  he  was  compelled  to  serve  away  from  home 
more  than  twenty  years. 

In  the  mean  time  the  chieftains  of  Ithaca  and  the  neigh- 
boring island  wooed  Penelope.  Loving  Ulysses,  however, 
and  hoping  for  his  return,  she  refused  to  accede  to  the 
pleasure  of  the  suitors,  who  remained,  wasting  Ulysses' 
means,  insulting  his  son,  and  bribing  the  servants. 

"Wait,"  said  she,  when  they  became  impatient,  "until 
I  have  woven  a  winding  sheet  for  old  Icarius,  the  father 
of  Ulysses,  so  that  I  shall  not  lose  my  threads." 

And  she  is  described  at  her  loom  undoing  each  night  the 
day's  work,  so  that  the  web  might  never  be  finished.  This 
went  on  for  three  years  until  her  maids  revealed  her  strat- 
egy, and  she  was  driven  to  desperate  straits  to  keep  off 
the  suitors.  Ulysses  finally  returned  in  time  to  save  her, 
and  husband  and  wife  were  united.  And  thus  it  was  that 
Penelope  became  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans  the  god- 
dess of  weaving. 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  19 

EARLY   EXISTENCE   IN  NORTH   AND   SOUTH   AMERICA 

The  art  in  North  and  South  America  seems  to  have 
sprung  up  independently  of  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  also 
at  a  prehistoric  date.  The  ancient  Peruvians  and  ancient 
Mexicans  wove  cloth  of  wonderful  fineness  and  with  a  finish 
not  unlike  lustrous  silk.  Many  of  the  beautiful  shades 
cannot  be  surpassed  by  the  best  skill  of  to-day. 

Pizarro,  the  conqueror  of  Peru,  found  the  art  in  1533 
had  reached  a  perfection  beyond  the  best  artisans  of  Spain. 
The  wool  was  furnished  by  the  small  llama  and  the  alpaca, 
long  domesticated,  and  by  the  vicuna  and  guanaco,  which 
ran  wild  among  the  fastnesses  of  the  Andes.  A  wild  kind 
of  cotton  was  also  employed.  Both  sides  of  the  fabric 
were  woven  alike,  and  the  design  and  brilliant  coloring 
of  some  of  the  specimens  in  the  museums  show  a  skill  and 
art  even  now  rarely  excelled  by  the  best  artisans. 

The  resemblance  between  the  Peruvian  fabrics  and  those 
found  in  the  tombs  of  the  Egyptian  kings  is  striking.  In 
both  cases  the  textile  industry  had  reached  equally  high 
development.  The  Peruvian  spindles  were  of  wood,  and 
had  solid  sun-burned  clay  whorls  of  beautiful  finish.  Yarns 
were  twisted  by  wetting  and  rolling  between  the  fingers 
and  part  of  the  body.  The  needles  used  were  made  from 
wood,  bone,  or  copper.  Among  the  fabrics  thus  woven 
were  vests,  smock-like  outer  garments  similar  to  the  poncho, 
loosely  woven  cloths,  loin  girdles,  head  coverings,  and 
sandals,  home  drapings  for  walls,  doors,  awnings,  banners, 
and  blankets.  The  ceremonial  fabrics  were  of  high 
color. 

These  fabrics  of  the  Incas  are  at  least  one  thousand 
years  old.  Color  and  design  are  of  a  high  order,  and  are 
as  beautiful  to-day  as  when  woven,  showing  that  even  the 
use  of  dyes  had  been  highly  developed.  Geometric,  con- 
ventionalized animal  and  human  figures  are  shown  on 
mummy  cloths.  Both  cotton  and  wool  were  used,  and 


20  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

the  material  was  woven  upon  simple  hand  looms  from  yarn 
spun  in  the  crudest  way. 

Some  of  the  American  Indians  wove  fabrics  of  a  high  order. 
Blankets  made  by  the  Navajos  of  Arizona  and  New  Mexico 
are  of  so  close  a  texture  they  will  hold  water,  and  in  design 
and  brilliancy  of  color  are  most  striking,  although  woven 
in  a  primitive  manner,  by  hand. 

The  beautiful  white  "Tappa"  cloth  of  the  South  Sea 
Islands  was  made  in  a  peculiar  way,  especially  by  the 
natives  of  the  Marquesas  Islands.  Instead  of  being  woven, 
it  was  beaten  together.  The  exterior  green  bark  was 
stripped  from  the  branches  of  the  so-called  "cloth"  tree, 
a  species  of  the  mulberry,  which  grows  luxuriantly  in  those 
regions,  and  the  remaining  fibrous  substance  was  then  re- 
moved from  the  stick  to  which  it  had  adhered.  A  quantity 
of  this  fabric  wrapped  in  large  leaves,  and  secured  by  fibrous 
cords  to  prevent  its  being  swept  away,  was  placed  in  the 
bed  of  a  running  stream.  After  two  or  three  days'  immersion 
the  bundles  were  opened  and  the  fibres  pulled  out  and  ex- 
posed to  the  air.  Each  piece  was  inspected  to  ascertain 
whether  it  was  ready  for  the  remaining  operations.  If  not, 
it  went  back  to  the  bed  of  the  brook  until  the  conditions 
were  such  as  were  desired. 

When  evidences  of  decomposition  were  shown  by  the 
fibres  becoming  soft  and  flexible,  the  natives  knew  that 
the  material  was  in  the  proper  condition  for  the  next  step 
of  the  operation.  The  different  strips  were  then  laid  in 
layers  upon  a  smooth  surface,  such  as  the  prostrate  trunk 
of  a  cocoanut-tree,  and  were  beaten  with  a  kind  of  heavy 
mallet,  made  of  ebony,  in  shape  somewhat  like  an  old- 
fashioned  razor-strop.  Upon  the  surface  of  the  hammer 
were  shallow  parallel  indentations,  which  varied  in  depth 
on  different  sides,  so  that  it  was  adapted  to  the  several 
stages  of  the  operation.  The  hammering  thus  produced 
the  corduroy  stripes  that  were  prominent  in  the  "Tappa." 

The  fibres  of  the  "Tappa"  were  thus  beaten,  and  layer 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  21 

after  layer  was  put  on  until  the  whole  was  merged  into  one 
mass.  The  beating  then  continued,  water  from  time  to 
time  being  added,  until  the  material  reached  the  required 
thinness,  according  to  the  purpose  for  which  it  was  to  be 
used.  It  was  then  placed  on  the  grass  to  bleach,  and  came 
out  a  dazzling  whiteness;  or  it  was  impregnated  with  vege- 
table dyes,  which  gave  it  a  permanent  color.  Brown  and 
yellow  were  generally  the  common  tints. 

According  to  Captain  Sylvanus  Nickerson,  who  commanded 
the  clipper  ship  "Huguenot"  when  she  was  lost  in  1880 
off  the  island  of  Java,  the  Malays  of  some  of  the  islands 
of  the  Ombay  Straits  still  weave  their  garments  of  cotton 
which  is  grown  in  the  same  row  with  the  corn,  with  little 
or  no  cultivation,  and  without  any  effort  to  separate  the 
plants.  They  take  the  cotton  as  it  comes  from  the  boll, 
and,  making  it  into  a  ball,  twist  the  fibre  with  the  fingers, 
pulling  it  from  the  ball.  As  fast  as  the  cotton  is  twisted 
into  the  required  thread,  the  crude  thread  thus  formed 
is  wrapped  on  a  piece  of  bamboo  about  five  or  six  inches 
long.  When  a  sufficient  quantity  has  been  prepared,  it  is 
put  on  the  loom  for  weaving.  The  loom  consists  of  two 
upright  posts,  or  sticks,  driven  into  the  ground  at  the  dis- 
tance required  to  give  the  fabric  a  certain  width.  The 
warp  is  wrapped  about  these  sticks,  and  the  weft  thread 
is  worked  in  and  out  with  a  crude  needle  and  pounded  into 
position. 

The  method  of  weaving  practised  to-day  by  the  Navajos 
is  the  same  as  that  employed  by  the  hand  weavers  of  India 
and  China,  and  is  virtually  identical  with  the  method  that 
has  been  used  from  the  beginning  by  primitive  weavers  the 
world  over.  The  warp  is  stretched  between  two  parallel 
poles  suspended  between  upright  posts,  and  the  weft 
threads  are  drawn  in  and  out  of  the  warp  with  a  rude 
wooden  needle  somewhat  like  a  fisherman's  needle  and 
beaten  together  with  a  stick.  Seated  upon  the  ground, 
and  with  no  pattern  save  that  in  the  mind's  eye,  geometric 


22  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

designs  and  quaint  figures  are  worked  in  the  fabric  with 
threads  of  beautiful  colors. 

Basket  weaving  of  hemp  and  the  soft  bast  of  linden  was 
quite  generally  known  by  the  savages  at  Wellfleet.  Among 
the  Algonquin  Indians  feathers  of  the  wild  turkey  and  other 
birds,  and  white  hair  of  the  moose  were  beautifully  woven 
into  hempen  garments  and  articles  of  utility.  In  1785 
EH  Twichel,  of  Bethel,  Me.,  received  from  Millocket, 
an  old  Indian  woman  of  Oxford,  a  twofold  pocket-book 
which  she  had  woven  of  hemp  and  beautifully  embroidered 
with  long  white  hair  of  the  moose.  It  shows  admirably 
the  high  state  of  art  reached  by  the  Algonquins,  and  is  now 
in  the  Maine  Historical  Society. 


THE  WEST  S   TEXTILE    INDEBTEDNESS   TO   THE   EAST 

As  civilization  spread  from  the  East  to  the  West,  so  Asia 
and  Egypt  passed  on  to  Greece,  Italy,  Spain,  and  the  rest 
of  Europe  the  knowledge  in  its  higher  form  of  spinning 
and  weaving.  Italy  and  Greece  first  used  the  information 
thus  obtained,  and  then  taught  Spain,  France,  and  Flanders 
the  art  of  weaving  woolen  and  cotton  goods. 

At  a  late  date  in  ancient  history  Germany  had  obtained 
the  art,  and  its  people  were  secretly  practising  it  in  caves 
and  vaults,  as  if  they  were  either  afraid  of  it  becoming 
known  or,  being  a  warlike  people,  were  too  proud  to  have 
it  said  that  they  labored  at  the  loom.  England  and  North- 
eastern Europe  received  the  knowledge  from  Germany. 

By  the  tenth  century  the  manufacture  of  woolens  had 
attained  such  perfection  in  Flanders  that  one  author  said, 
"The  art  of  weaving  seems  to  be  a  gift  bestowed  upon  them 
by  nature,"  and  another,  that  "all  the  world  was  clothed 
from  English  wool  wrought  in  Flanders."  Count  Bald- 
win III.  of  Flanders  had  established  the  first  weavers  and 
fullers  at  Ghent  shortly  before  961,  and  also  instituted 
yearly  fairs  at  Ypres,  Bruges,  and  other  places. 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  23 

The  invasion  of  England  by  William  the  Conqueror,  in 
1066,  found  the  Angles  and  Saxons  already  spinning  and 
weaving  the  wool  of  then*  flocks,  and  considerable  skill  had 
been  attained,  though  it  had  not  reached  the  high  level  of 
the  Continental  work,  particularly  as  practised  by  the  people 
of  France  and  Flanders.  As  the  invasion  brought  in  its 
train  a  large  immigration  to  England  of  the  Flemings,  who 
settled  in  the  western  part  of  England  along  the  Irish  Chan- 
nel and  in  what  is  now  Lancaster,  their  skill  raised  English 
spinning  and  weaving  to  a  level  little  below  that  of  the 
Continent,  and  made  their  part  of  England  a  great  seat  of 
the  industry.  It  received  further  impetus  during  the  reign 
of  Henry  I.  from  further  immigration  of  workmen  from 
Flanders.  And  still  more  Flemish  weavers,  because  of 
their  great  skill  in  weaving  and  spinning,  were  induced  by 
Queen  Elizabeth  to  settle  in  England;  and  so  was  the  foun- 
dation laid  in  England  of  what  has  become  the  greatest 
textile  manufacturing  centre  in  the  world.  And  now  let 
us  glance  at  the  history  of  the  raw  and  manufactured  prod- 
ucts of  flax,  wool,  cotton,  and  silk. 


CHAPTER  II 

FLAX,  LINEN,  WOOL,  COTTON,  AND   SILK 

FLAX  AND  LINEN — HISTORY  OF  LINEN — PRODUCTION  OF  FLAX  AND 
LINEN — WOOL — EFFORTS  TO  IMPROVE  WOOL — EARLY  USE  OF 
WOOL — COTTON,  THE  PLANT,  GROWTH,  AND  DISTRIBUTION — 
EARLY  HISTORY — COLUMBUS  AND  COTTON — SILK — EARLY  HIS- 
TORY OF  SILK — SILK  INDUSTRY  IN  AMERICA 

Flax,  the  term  used  to  denote  the  plant  and  the  fibre,  di- 
vides with  wool  the  distinction  of  being  the  material  first 
used  in  spinning  and  weaving.  The  plant  belongs  to  the 
botanical  order  termed  Linacese,  and  is  known  scientifi- 
cally as  Linum  usitatissimum.  It  is  an  annual  with  stalk 
rising  two  to  three  feet  and  more  in  height,  has  narrow  lance- 
shaped  leaves  and  branches  at  the  top  with  a  bright  blue 
flower  on  each  branch. 

Flax  has  been  cultivated  for  thousands  of  years  in  Meso- 
potamia, Assyria,  and  Egypt,  and  is  wild  in  the  region  be- 
tween the  Persian  Gulf,  the  Caspian  and  Black  Seas. 

The  stalk  is  a  woody  cylinder,  more  or  less  pithy  and 
hollow  when  dry,  and  is  enclosed  in  bark  consisting  of  long, 
strong,  silky  fibres,  cemented  together  by  a  kind  of  glue 
and  encased  in  an  outer  bark  or  skin  which  adheres  as  if 
glued  to  the  fibre.  The  fibre,  when  freed  from  all  else  so  far 
as  possible  by  the  process  of  rotting,  to  destroy  the  glue, 
breaking  to  free  it  from  the  woody  part  of  the  stalk,  scrutch- 
ing  to  whip  out  the  small  particles  of  bark  and  stalk  that 
adhere,  hatchelling  to  straighten  it  and  free  it  from  tangles, 
is  nearly  pure  bast  of  a  light  gray  and  brown  color,  inclining 
to  green.  It  is  exceedingly  tough,  adapted  to  spinning  and 
weaving,  capable  of  being  bleached  to  snowy  whiteness, 


SPECIMENS  OF   NORTH   DAKOTA  GROWN   RUSSIAN   SEED-FLAX 


CUTTING   HEMP 

(From  illustrations  furnished  by  the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture) 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  25 

and  will  take  more  readily  than  cotton  a  variety  of  colors 
by  dyeing. 

The  ultimate  filaments  vary  from  one  six  hundred  and 
fiftieth  to  one  five  thousandth  of  an  inch,  are  hollow,  thick- 
walled,  and  nearly  solid  cylindrical  cells,  terminated  by 
exceedingly  attenuated  points.  They  are  semi-transparent, 
of  a  silky  lustre,  and  under  the  microscope  the  walls  of  the 
tube  appear  like  a  double  line  through  the  centre.  The 
cells  are  jointed  like  stalks  of  bamboo.  When  the  fibre 
is  separated,  it  is  either  dressed  flax  or  tow.  The  seeds, 
small  and  glossy  green,  are  called  linseed,  and  furnish  the 
linseed  oil  of  commerce.  As  the  gum  joining  the  mature 
flax  fibres  is  insoluble  by  methods  that  are  profitable,  the 
thread  for  linen  cloth  is  made  from  the  green  flax.  If  the 
seed  is  allowed  to  mature  as  a  source  of  oil,  the  flax  straw 
is  useless  for  linen;  for  all  attempts  to  utilize  flax  straw 
have  as  yet  been  without  commercial  success,  though  the 
ripened  flax  straw  has  been  known  to  withstand  without  de- 
cay the  weather  for  about  a  century,  showing  its  great  lasting 
qualities. 

In  the  preparation  of  flax  for  spinning,  it  is  soaked  in 
water  or  exposed  to  the  dew  until  the  woody  part  rots  or 
rets  away  from  the  basty  ulterior,  which  is  then  separated 
from  the  woody  enclosure.  The  heckle,  a  many-toothed 
steel  comb,  then  removes  the  coarser  tow^  and  separates 
the  filaments  of  the  flax.  Upon  the  number  of  hecklings, 
so  called,  depends  the  fineness  of  the  flax,  for  the  fibres 
are  united  into  a  roving  which  is  spun  into  a  continuous 
thread. 


HISTORY  OF  LINEN 

Linen,  the  general  term  for  the  material  spun  from  flax  or 
hemp,  antedates  existing  records  belonging  to  the  earliest 
eras  of  the  prehistoric  ages  of  which  traces  have  been  dis- 
covered, and  has  been  found  in  the  villages  of  the  Lake 


26  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

Dwellers  and  in  other  parts  of  the  world  where  ruins  have 
disclosed  the  remnants  of  fabrics. 

The  Finns  introduced  flax  into  North  Europe,  the  West 
Aryans  brought  it  to  West  Europe,  while  the  East  Aryans 
conveyed  it  to  Hindustan.  In  ancient  Europe  the  priest, 
only,  wore  linen  habitually.  Frequent  references  to  it 
may  be  found  in  the  Bible  to  show  the  esteem  in  which  it 
was  held.  It  is  said  in  Genesis  that  hail  destroyed  the 
flax  and  barley.  Herodotus  refers  to  it  as  an  article  of 
Egyptian  export.  The  wrapping  of  most  of  the  mummies, 
some  of  which  are  three  thousand  to  four  thousand  years 
old,  is  of  linen.  In  Homer  the  mother  of  Nausicaa  is  de- 
picted as  spinning  purple  fabrics  at  early  dawn  by  the 
hearth. 

The  garments  of  the  Hebrew,  Egyptian,  Greek,  and 
Roman  priests  were  often  made  of  fine  linen.  Bengal  cul- 
tivated the  flax,  and  the  Hindustanee  spun  and  wove  it 
into  linen  at  an  early  date  in  ancient  history,  as  did  also 
the  ancient  Thracians.  In  mediaeval  times  Italy  and  Spain 
and  France  were  celebrated  for  their  linen  fabrics.  Char- 
lemagne in  the  eighth  century  A.D.,  like  many  a  modern, 
wore  linen  underwear.  The  Moors  of  Spain  brought  the 
industry  to  a  state  of  high  perfection  and  exported  their 
fine  linen  to  Constantinople  and  India. 

Flanders,  Brabant,  some  of  the  German  towns,  and 
France  were  making  linen  fabrics  by  the  eleventh  century, 
and  before  1250  Flanders  had  begun  extensive  exportation 
to  England.  Ypres,  which  as  early  as  960  was  one  of  the 
seats  of  the  industry,  has  given  us  the  word  "diaper,"  or 
cloth  of  Ypres,  which  then  denoted  a  great  fineness  of  man- 
ufacture. The  King  of  France  in  1394  sent  the  fine  linen 
of  Rheims  as  a  ransom  to  the  Sultan  for  some  noblemen 
who  had  fallen  into  his  subjects'  hands.  The  famous 
Bayeux  tapestry  is  of  linen  body  with  the  designs  in 
wool. 

Among  the  Anglo-Saxons  linen  and  wool  were  both  spun 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  27 

and  woven,  and  history  mentions  the  skill  of  the  daughters 
of  Edward  the  Elder.  Fine  linen  was  made  in  Sussex  and 
Wiltshire  as  early  as  1253.  A  guild  of  linen  weavers  was 
organized  in  1386  at  London.  The  linen  industry,  however, 
did  not  flourish  in  England  as  it  did  on  the  Continent,  so 
that  in  1677  it  was  proposed  to  establish  spinning  schools 
as  they  then  existed  in  Germany.  As  many  as  two  hundred 
girls  from  six  years  upwards  sat  under  the  supervision  of  a 
woman  who  in  a  pulpit  directed  the  pupils,  and  tapped  with 
a  long  white  wand  any  child  who  neglected  her  work. 
When  this  did  not  suffice,  she  rang  a  bell,  and  the  offender 
was  taken  away  and  whipped. 

Irish  linen  weaving  began  in  the  eleventh  century,  but 
it  received  its  great  impetus  from  Louis  Crommelin,  who 
had  been  driven  from  France  by  the  revocation  of  the 
Edict  of  Nantes  in  1685,  which  instituted  religious  persecu- 
tion. From  this  period  also  begins  England's  supremacy 
in  the  textile  industry,  for  the  religious  intolerance  that 
the  edict  entailed  drove  three  hundred  thousand  of  the  best 
French  artisans  from  their  native  country.  It  was  not 
until  1725  that  machinery  was  used  in  Irish  weaving,  and 
not  until  1828  that  flax  was  spun  by  machinery. 

Linen  had  begun  to  be  woven  in  Scotland  in  the  reign 
of  Charles  L,  and  by  1688  had  become  an  important  Scot- 
tish industry,  which  had  already  raised  the  apprehensions 
of  the  English  weavers;  for  the  Scotch  packmen  who  went 
into  England  in  1684  to  sell  goods  were  sometimes  whipped 
as  malefactors  and  required  to  give  bonds  that  they  would 
abandon  the  trade. 

Linen  was  also  one  of  the  Puritan  domestic  industries, 
and  as  linsey-woolsey  gave  its  name  jointly  to  a  fabric 
composed  both  of  flax  and  wool.  Linen  has  never  been 
successfully  woven  in  America  except  in  the  coarser  forms 
of  crash  and  towelling.  Scotland,  Ireland,  and  Belgium 
produce  the  finest  linen;  Russia,  the  largest  amount  of 
flax;  and  Coutrai,  Belgium,  the  flax  best  prepared  for 


28  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

spinning.     Most  of  the  American-grown  flax  is  raised  for 
seed  only. 

PRODUCTION   OF  FLAX  AND   LINEN 

America  has  never  been  able  to  equal  the  Continent  in 
its  production  of  the  finest  linen,  none  of  the  growers  of 
flax  giving  the  attention  to  the  proper  preparation  of  the 
fibre  which  has  made  that  of  the  Belgian,  Irish,  and  French 
growers  so  superior.  Most  of  the  Western  farmers  grow 
their  flax  for  the  seed.  The  tedious  process  of  the  separa- 
tion of  the  fibre  from  the  stalk  and  its  preparation  for  the 
yarn  require  the  cheapest  form  of  labor  to  make  it  profit- 
able, and  for  this  reason  more  than  any  other  America 
has  not  yet  raised  the  flax  fibre  in  quantities  that  would 
be  commercially  successful. 

The  total  production  of  flax  for  the  year  1909,  or  the  last 
year  given  by  the  census  of  the  flax-producing  countries, 
was  1,872,127,000  pounds,  of  which  Russia  produced 
1,594,000,000;  Austria  -  Hungary,  104,332,000;  France, 
46,340,000;  Italy,  44,800,000;  United  Kingdom,  26,934,- 
000;  and  the  United  States  but  4,000,000  pounds.  The 
number  of  establishments  producing  flax,  hemp,  and  jute 
products  in  America  in  1909  was  149,  the  value  of  the  prod- 
uct was  $58,946,000,  the  capital  invested  was  $73,393,000, 
and  the  number  of  employees  was  26,361. 

Russia,  Austria,  Germany,  France,  Belgium,  Holland, 
England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland  are  great  producers  of  linen 
to-day.  The  best  yarn  probably  comes  from  Holland, 
Belgium,  France,  and  Ireland.  The  United  States  occupies 
a  relatively  low  standard  as  to  the  amount  of  products 
turned  out. 

WOOL 

The  date  at  which  prehistoric  man  discarded  the  pelt 
of  skins  for  the  woven  fabric  of  wool  or  linen  marks  the 
origin  of  the  textile  industry.  Wool  was  probably  the 


LINEN   MUMMY  CLOTHS 

(From  an  Exhibit  in  the  Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts) 

Specimens    from    Egypt,     date    about    1545-1350    B.C.      The    hiero- 
glyphics are  painted  yellow  and  outlined  with  black. 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  29 

first  material  spun  by  early  man;  for  flocks  and  herds 
and  a  pastoral  existence  was  the  first  upward  step  in  civ- 
ilization from  the  primitive  conditions  of  savagery.  Prim- 
itive sheep  were  covered  with  hair,  and  the  wool  which  now 
characterizes  them  was  a  downy  undercoat.  As  time 
progressed  and  the  art  of  spinning  and  weaving  developed, 
the  food  value  of  sheep  decreased  as  their  wool  value  in- 
creased, and  the  hairy  flocks  were  bred  out  and  sheep  with 
true  wool  succeeded.  Even  now  the  growing  of  hair  among 
the  wool  of  old  or  neglected  sheep  is  an  atavistic  return  to 
the  original  condition. 

Although  the  best  quality  and  greatest  quantity  of  wool 
comes  from  sheep,  it  is  also  found  on  many  fur-bearing  ani- 
mals, such  as  the  angora  goat,  cashmere  goat,  camel, 
alpaca,  and  the  llama.  No  less  than  six  or  eight  qualities 
of  wool  come  from  a  sheep,  each  kind  having  its  particular 
advantage  for  manufacturing.  As  a  rule,  hair  is  the  longer 
and  the  exterior  fibre,  while  wool  is  the  short  fibre  next 
to  the  skin.  Wool  is  pliable  and  warm  and  has  the  prop- 
erty of  felting. 

EFFORTS  TO   IMPROVE  WOOL 

When  and  where  efforts  were  first  made  to  improve 
the  wool  production  of  sheep  is  not  known,  but  evidences 
exist  to  show  that  the  Romans  about  200  B.C.  had  begun 
the  attempt  which  resulted  in  a  breed  of  Tarentine  sheep 
with  a  long,  heavy,  and  fine  staple  wool.  In  "De  Re 
Rustica"  of  Columella,  written  about  the  middle  of  the  first 
century,  he  states  that  his  uncle  Marcus  Columella,  a  farmer 
of  Spain,  succeeded  in  greatly  invigorating  his  delicate 
Tarentine  ewes  by  crossing  them  with  African  rams.  The 
Tarentine  fleece  had  been  either  brown  or  black,  but  by 
this  outside  breeding  Columella  succeeded  in  procuring  not 
only  much  more  vigorous  stock,  but  a  heavy,  white,  fine 
wool. 

The  cross-breed  thus  accomplished  was  the  original  of 


30  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

the  Spanish  merino,  and  with  modifications  and  crossings 
has  been  the  parent  stock  of  the  fine-wool  sheep  of  Europe 
and  America.  Pedro  IV.  of  Castile  in  the  fourteenth 
century  and  Cardinal  Ximenez  in  the  sixteenth  century 
renewed  the  stock  with  Barbary  rams.  The  Spanish  stock 
was  imported  by  Louis  XIV.  of  France  with  great  difficulty, 
owing  to  Spain's  refusal  to  allow  sheep  to  be  imported  and 
improved,  resulting  in  the  French  merino,  one  of  the  best 
long- wool  breeds.  Importation  of  the  same  Spanish  breed 
to  Germany,  cross-breeding,  and  climatic  changes  have 
produced  the  fine  Saxon  wools,  so  advantageous  for  the 
best  broadcloths.  To  this  merino  origin  may  be  traced 
the  French  sheep  of  Naz,  which  produce  wool  of  such 
silky  lustre. 

The  first  mention  of  sheep  in  England  is  in  a  document 
of  712,  where  the  price  of  the  animal  is  said  to  have  been 
placed  at  one  shilling  "until  a  fortnight  after  Easter." 
By  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century  England  was 
the  great  wool-producing  country  of  Europe,  and  was  fur- 
nishing the  weavers  of  Flanders  then*  wool  to  such  an  extent 
that  it  was  considered  good  policy  for  Flanders  to  keep 
peace  with  England. 

Sheep  were  first  introduced  into  America  at  Jamestown 
in  1609,  and  the  colonial  government  in  all  the  colonies 
encouraged  the  raising  of  sheep.  President  Washington 
imported  the  best  breeds  of  sheep  from  England,  and  pro- 
moted the  bringing  to  this  country  of  the  most  experi- 
enced spinners  and  weavers  from  England. 

The  merino  strain  was  introduced  into  America  between 
1801-12  by  William  Jarvis,  Colonel  David  Humphreys,  and 
others,  and  with  the  various  merino  strains  make  up  the 
flocks  prized  for  their  wool.  Colonel  Humphreys,  while 
United  States  minister  to  Spain,  had  conceived  the  idea  of 
introducing  merino  sheep  into  America,  and  April  10,  1802, 
shipped  from  Lisbon  one  hundred  sheep,  nine  of  which  died 
on  the  way.  The  remainder  were  sold  to  the  farmers  about 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  31 

Derby,  Conn.,  for  a  hundred  dollars  per  head  and  greatly 
improved  the  strain  of  American  sheep. 

The  Australian  and  Cape  Colony  sheep  which  produce 
the  best  wool  have  the  merino  strain.  Where  the  food- 
producing  qualities  have  been  considered  as  well  as  the  wool, 
the  wool  is  apt  to  be  medium  or  coarse  in  quality.  This  is 
true  of  the  South-western  and  Pacific  States  flocks,  and  the 
South  American  breeds.  The  best  English  strains  are  the 
Leicester,  Border  Leicester,  Lincoln,  Cotswold,  Kent, 
Devon,  Longwool,  South  Devon,  Hampshire,  Wensleydale, 
Roscommon  and  Oxford  Down. 

Henry  Dudding,  of  Riby  Grove,  Lincolnshire,  England, 
in  1906  sold  a  Lincoln  ram  raised  by  him  for  about  seven 
thousand  dollars.  The  same  year  Robert  and  William 
Wright,  of  Hocton  Heath,  Lincoln,  sold  then*  flock  of  950 
Lincolns  to  Senor  Manuel  Cobo,  of  Buenos  Ayres,  for 
about  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars. 

Wool  is  divided  into  pulled  and  clipped  or  fleece  wools. 
The  two  latter  are  cut  from  the  living  sheep,  while  the  first 
is  pulled  by  the  roots  from  the  pelt  of  the  dead  sheep.  The 
clipped  wools  make  up  the  greater  part  of  the  market  and 
are  divided  into  long  and  short  staple,  or  combing  and 
clothing  wools. 

Clothing  wools  are  used  for  broadcloths  and  heavy  cloths, 
the  finer  combing  wools  for  the  thinner  fabrics  for  women's 
wear.  Medium  wool  is  used  for  worsted  goods,  alpacas, 
mohairs,  and  the  like,  while  the  coarser  goes  into  carpets, 
blankets,  and  similar  goods. 

The  production  of  wool  in  the  principal  sheep-raising 
countries  in  1909,  as  given  by  the  Report  of  the  Tariff 
Board,  was  2,490,600,000  pounds,  divided  as  follows:  Aus- 
tralia, 718,000,000;  Continental  Europe,  420,000,000; 
Argentina,  401,200,000;  United  States,  328,100,000;  New 
Zealand,  223,000,000;  United  Kingdom,  142,000,000;  Uru- 
guay, 127,400,000;  and  British  South  Africa,  130,900,000. 

The  number  of  sheep  raised   in  America  in  1910  was 


32  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

51,809,068,  and  in  the  United  Kingdom,  31,164,587;  in 
Argentina  in  1908,  67,211,754;  in  Australia  in  1909, 
91,676,281;  in  New  Zealand  in  1911,  23,996,126;  South 
Africa  in  1910,  31,102,467;  Uruguay  in  1910,  26,286,296; 
Russia,  82,672,123;  Ottoman  Empire,  41,000,000;  British 
India,  21,824,000;  China,  18,900,000;  France,  17,357,640; 
Spain,  15,471,183;  Austria-Hungary,  13,991,500;  Italy, 
11,160,000;  Canada,  2,598,470. 

The  value  of  manufactures  of  wool  in  America  in  1909 
was  $507,219,000;  the  capital  invested  was  $506,323,000, 
ranking  next  to  cotton;  the  number  of  establishments  was 
1,126;  and  the  number  of  employees,  208,739. 


EARLY  USE  OP  WOOL 

The  spinning  and  weaving  of  wool  has  been  practised, 
as  we  have  seen,  from  a  most  remote  antiquity,  and  in  the 
Far  Western  America  as  well  as  in  remote  Eastern  Japan 
and  China.  Remnants  of  wool  as  well  as  linen  are  found 
in  the  barrows  of  the  Britons  and  also  in  other  tombs. 
The  art  is  frequently  referred  to  by  ancient  writers,  and, 
when  we  enter  the  mediaeval  age,  we  find  more  frequent 
references  to  it  in  the  many  statutes  that  were  passed  re- 
garding it  and  its  regulation. 

Sheep  were  domestic  among  the  Britons  long  before  the 
advent  of  the  Romans,  and  some  use  was  made  of  sheep- 
skin and  wool.  But  the  Romans  certainly  taught  the 
Britons  more  perfect  weaving  and  spinning.  The  Romans 
established  a  wool  factory  which  supplied  their  army,  and 
the  Britons  were  quick  to  learn.  It  was  not  long  before 
the  product  of  Winchester  looms  had  a  reputation  abroad, 
and  it  was  said,  "The  wool  of  Britain  is  often  spun  so  fine 
that  it  is  in  a  manner  comparable  to  the  spider's  webs." 
The  fibre  was  in  great  demand  in  the  Low  Countries. 

The  Angles  and  the  Saxons  brought  with  them  to  Eng- 
land a  knowledge  of  rude  spinning  and  weaving,  and  Alfred's 


EGYPTIAN  TUNIC 

(From  an  Exhibit  in  the  Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts) 

A  tunic  from  a  Coptic  grave  in  Egypt  dating  from  the  first  to  the  seventh 
century  A.D.  Into  the  garment  of  plain  basket  weave  are  woven  with 
reddish-violet  wool  and  white  linen  threads  circular  medallions  and  bands 
of  ornaments.  The  garment  was  made  in  one  piece  and  sewed  together 
under  the  arms. 


(Fror 


PERUVIAN  TUNIC 

an  Exhibit  in  the  Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts) 


Woven  with  cotton,  decorated  with  borders  of  tapestry  weaving  of  colored 
wools.  The  red  wools  are  dyed,  while  the  yellow  and  brown  are  the  natural 
color  of  the  Vicuna  and  the  alpaca  wools.  It  shows  the  high  skill  reached 
by  the  Peruvians  in  the  textile  industry  before  the  Spanish  Conquest. 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  33 

mother  is  referred  to  as  skilful  in  spinning.  Although 
early  English  history  is  full  of  allusions  to  the  textile  in- 
dustry, the  English  products  could  not  compare  with  those 
of  the  Continent.  At  various  times,  beginning  with  the 
reign  of  William  the  Conqueror,  who  allowed  Flemish 
weavers  to  settle  at  Carlisle  under  the  protection  of  the 
queen,  there  were  immigrations  of  skilled  Flemish  work- 
men caused  by  the  Continental  wars  and  persecutions, 
and  little  by  little  these  immigrants  established  the  higher 
industry  here  and  there  in  England. 

Henry  II.,  who  reigned  from  1154  to  1189,  inaugurated 
the  cloth  fair  in  the  churchyard  of  the  priory  of  St.  Bar- 
tholomew, established  guilds  of  weavers,  and  granted  the 
city  of  London  the  exclusive  rights  to  export  woolen  cloth. 
An  act  passed  in  1189  prohibited  the  mixing  of  Spanish 
and  English  wool,  and  another  in  1197  regulated  the 
dyeing  of  wool  to  be  sold.  Edward  I.  "settles  his  sons  to 
schole  and  his  daughters  he  set  to  woll-worke,"  and  in  1279 
a  petition  asserts  that  the  wool  exported  to  Flanders  was 
nearly  half  the  land  in  value. 

Edward  III.  gave  special  attention  to  wool  industries, 
bringing  weavers,  dyers,  and  fullers  from  Flanders,  and  pro- 
hibited, under  pain  of  life  and  limb,  the  exportation  of  wool. 
English  wool  had  been  in  great  demand  in  Flanders,  Brabant, 
and  France,  and  was  second  only  to  Spanish  wool.  The 
practice  of  creating  large  sheep  farms,  with  the  consequent 
number  of  people  thrown  out  of  employment  and  the  in- 
creased price  of  agricultural  products,  led  in  1489  to  legis- 
lation restricting  sheep  raising.  This  shows  that  Eng- 
land's woolen  industry  at  this  early  date  was  an  important 
one,  for  she  was  then  beginning  to  export  her  woolen  fabrics. 

The  statute  books  of  Edward  III.  and  IV.  and  the  sub- 
sequent rulers  of  England  contain  frequent  references  to 
wool  and  its  manufacture.  Efforts  to  prevent  the  exporta- 
tion led  to  much  smuggling,  and  it  was  not  until  the  reign 
of  Queen  Elizabeth  that  the  free  exportation  of  wool  was 


34  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

permitted.  In  1660  acts  prohibiting  the  export  of  wool 
wer*  passed  again,  and  those  remained  in  force  until  1825. 

The  impetus  which  the  English  textile  industry  received 
from  the  immigration  of  weavers,  particularly  from  France, 
was  undoubtedly  great,  and  much  of  the  skilful  knowledge 
of  Lancaster  and  Manchester  and  Bradford  and  the  other 
towns  in  the  great  textile  centre  may  be  traced  to  the 
French  weavers  whom  France's  disastrous  intolerance  drove 
from  home. 

Wool  was  the  principal  staple  used  in  the  English  industry 
until  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when  the  in- 
ventive genius  of  Kay,  Hargreaves,  Arkwright,  Cartwright, 
and  Crompton  gave  such  an  impetus  to  weaving,  particu- 
larly of  cotton,  that  it  was  not  long  before  cotton  had 
wrested  from  wool  its  long  supremacy. 


COTTON,  THE   PLANT,  GROWTH,   AND  DISTRIBUTION 

"Cotton  supplies  nine-tenths  of  the  material  employed 
in  the  manufacture  of  clothing,"  said  M.  Jean  de  Hemptinne, 
of  Brussels,  in  opening  the  International  Congress  of  Cotton 
Manufacturers  in  Brussels  in  June,  1910.  It  is  the  most 
valuable  of  all  plants,  and  grows  generally  in  tropical 
and  sub-tropical  regions.  The  commercial  crop  for  1910, 
estimated  in  five  hundred  bales,  was  18,321,000  pounds,  of 
which  two- thirds  were  grown  in  the  United  States.  The 
name  is  derived  from  the  Arab  term  qutun,  and  in  its  trans- 
mission through  other  languages  changed  into  the  English 
name,  "cotton." 

Botanically,  it  belongs  to  the  genus  Gossypium,  of  the 
Malvaceae,  or  Mallow,  order,  and,  excepting  the  caravonica- 
tree,  is  a  small,  bush-like  plant  with  broad,  three-cleft  leaves 
and  with  seeds  that  grow  in  capsules,  or  bolls,  surrounded 
by  a  soft  white  or  cream  downy  fibre  which  can  be  readily 
spun.  These  fibres  are  unicellular  hairs  which  are  at- 
tached to  the  seed,  and  each  hair  is  the  outgrowth  of  a 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  35 

single  epidermal  cell  of  the  outer  coat  of  the  seed.  Under 
the  microscope  these  hairs,  or  fibres,  are  round  when  green, 
but,  when  dried,  are  flattened  and  twisted,  not  unlike  an 
empty  twisted  fire-hose.  This  characteristic  differentiates 
true  cotton  from  the  false  flosses  which  have  no  twist,  and 
also  aids  greatly  in  the  spinning  of  the  fibre. 

The  best  cotton  has  a  long  fibre  and  is  known  as  "Sea 
Island  cotton,"  because  it  is  grown  on  the  islands  off  the 
coast  of  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  and  Florida,  while  the 
shorter  fibre  cotton  is  grown  on  the  mainland  and  is  called 
upland  cotton.  Egyptian  cotton  ranks  next  to  Sea  Island 
cotton  in  value.  Sea  Island  cotton  originated  in  the  Lesser 
Antilles. 

The  seed  is  sown  in  April,  and  the  fruit,  or  bolls,  covered 
with  the  fibre,  are  gathered  in  September  and  October. 
Not  alone  is  the  cotton  of  value,  but  the  seed  now  furnishes 
the  valuable  cotton-seed  oil  and  a  meal  which,  as  a  food 
for  cattle,  has  great  fat -producing  qualities  and  is  also 
rich  in  fertilizer,  while  the  fibre  of  the  inner  bark  is  almost 
as  valuable  as  jute.  The  cotton-producing  countries  of 
the  world  in  the  order  of  the  value  of  their  output  are  as 
follows:  Southern  United  States,  British  India,  Egypt, 
Russia,  and  Brazil. 

EARLY  HISTORY 

History  cannot  tell  us  at  what  date  cotton  was  first  spun 
and  woven  into  fabric;  for  cotton,  like  wool,  was  being 
made  into  clothing  when  history  began.  In  different  parts 
of  the  tropical  world  vegetable  growths  akin  to  cotton 
were  in  use  in  prehistoric  times,  and  at  the  dawn  of  history 
cotton's  manufacture  into  fabrics  was  already  well  estab- 
lished in  the  Orient,  particularly  in  India  and  in  China. 

Cotton  has  been  for  thousands  of  years  the  staple  fabric 
of  the  East,  and  where  warmth  was  required  it  was  padded 
by  the  Chinese  into  thick  garments.  It  was  probably 
exported  from  India  to  Palestine  and  Egypt,  where  it 


36  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

became  indigenous,  and  gave  rise  to  flourishing  ancient 
textile  industries,  along  with  flax  and  wool. 

An  early  mention  of  cotton  is  in  the  Bible  in  King 
Solomon's  time,  1015  B.C.  to  975  B.C.  Herodotus,  the  father 
of  history,  in  445  B.C.  makes  the  first  historical  mention 
of  cotton.  In  speaking  of  the  people  of  India,  he  says, 
"They  possess  likewise  a  kind  of  plant,  which  instead  of 
fruit  produces  wool  of  a  firmer  and  better  quality  than 
that  of  sheep:  of  this  the  Indians  make  their  clothes." 

Cotton  was  brought  from  India  by  Alexander  in  500  B.C., 
and  from  then  until  about  the  birth  of  Christ  it  was  in  use 
on  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean.  Caesar  and  the  Roman 
army  wore  clothing  made  of  it,  as  did  the  Roman  people. 
It  was  imported  from  India  by  the  Romans,  though  it  was 
an  article  of  common  manufacture  in  Upper  Egypt,  where 
garments  were  made  for  the  Egyptian  priesthood.  It  was 
also  spun  and  woven  on  the  Island  of  Tylos  in  the  Persian 
Gulf  and  in  many  other  parts  of  the  Eastern  world. 

Pliny,  the  Roman  naturalist  (A.D.  23-79),  says  that 
Egyptian  priests,  as  well  as  the  common  people,  wore  cotton 
"woven  into  beautiful  garments  from  down  wool  spun 
into  thread,  the  wool  of  which  was  cotton  growing  in  upper 
Egypt  toward  Arabia."  The  same  authority  asserts  that 
the  origin  of  the  manufacturing  of  cotton  cloth  was  in  the 
weaving  establishments  founded  by  Semiramis  on  the  bank 
of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates. 

Arab  traders  were  the  first  to  import  it  in  any  quantity 
to  Italy  and  Spain.  Arrian,  an  Egyptian  Greek  of  the  sec- 
ond century  A.D.,  in  his  "Circumnavigation  of  the  Ery- 
thraean Sea,"  is  the  first  writer  to  mention  it  as  an  article 
of  commerce.  At  as  early  a  date  as  the  first  century  the 
Arab  traders  were  bringing  Indian  calicoes,  muslins,  and 
other  cottons  to  ports  on  the  Red  Sea  and  thence  to 
Europe.  It  was  said  of  Omar,  one  of  the  caliphs  of  Ma- 
homet, that  "he  preached  in  a  tattered  cotton  gown,  torn 
in  twelve  places." 


THE  COTTON  PLANT 

(From  F.  H.  Bowman's  "  The  Structure  of  the  Cotton  Fibre,"  courtesy 
of  The  Macmillan  Company) 

The  leaves,  the  bud,  the  flower,  and  the  boll  of  cotton,  showing  the  cotton 
ripe  in  the  boll  ready  for  picking. 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  37 

The  first  cultivation  of  cotton  in  Europe  was  probably 
by  the  Moors  in  Spain,  in  the  ninth  century  in  Valencia; 
and  it  continued  to  be  raised  and  spun  in  different  parts 
of  Spain  during  the  tenth  century,  and  until  the  Moors 
were  expelled.  Fustians  and  dimities  were  first  wrought 
in  Spain,  and  from  Spain  the  industry  spread  to  Venice 
and  to  Milan  in  the  fourteenth  century. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  thirteenth  century  Marco  Polo 
speaks  of  cotton  as  vegetable  wool  growing  on  trees,  and 
early  engravings  represent  the  trees  with  sheep's  heads 
at  the  ends  of  the  branches.  He  also  states  that  cotton 
was  manufactured  in  all  parts  of  India  and  some  parts  of 
China,  and  was  woven,  even  at  this  early  date,  of  colored 
threads.  By  the  fourteenth  century  the  industry  had 
begun  in  Venice  and  Milan,  where  the  warp,  though  some- 
times of  cotton,  was  usually  of  linen. 

Cotton  was  evidently  known  and  used  in  England  at  a 
very  early  date,  and  was  probably  imported  from  the  Span- 
ish Arabs.  In  the  Wardrobe  Act  of  1212,  twelve  pence  is 
mentioned  as  the  price  of  a  pound  of  cotton  for  stuffing  the 
acton  of  King  John,  and  shortly  after  cotton  wool  is  de- 
scribed as  being  used  for  candle  wicks.  By  1430  it  was 
being  imported  into  England  in  large  quantities,  and  the 
Netherlands  had  also  a  large  trade  in  cotton  with  Italy 
and  the  Levant,  and  from  this  time  on  frequent  mention 
is  made  of  it  in  England. 

Owing  to  the  confusion  of  fustians  of  wool  with  fustians 
of  cotton  in  the  early  mention  of  the  cotton  industry  in 
England,  it  is  impossible  to  fix  the  exact  date  at  which  the 
manufacture  of  cotton  began  there.  The  earliest  reference 
which  has  been  found  that  fixes  a  date  is  in  the  will  of  James 
Billston,  who  is  described  as  a  cotton  manufacturer,  and 
whose  will  was  probated  at  Chester,  1578. 

Another  early  reference  to  cotton  is  in  a  petition  to  the 
Earl  of  Salisbury,  made  presumably  1610,  asking  for  a 
continuance  of  the  grant  for  reforming  frauds  committed 


38  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

in  the  manufacture  of  "bombazine  cotton  such  as  groweth 
in  the  land  of  Persia,  being  no  kind  of  wool." 

A  petition  of  merchants  and  citizens  of  London  engaged 
in  buying  and  selling  fustians  made  in  England,  dated 
probably  1621,  shows  that  "divers  people  in  this  kingdom, 
chiefly  county  of  Lancaster,  for  twenty  years  past  were 
making  fustians  of  a  kind  of  bombast  or  down,  being  a 
fruit  of  the  earth  growing  upon  little  shrubs  or  bushes, 
brought  into  this  kingdom  by  Turkey  merchants  from 
Smyrna,  Cyprus,  Acra  and  Sydon,  but  commonly  called 
cotton  wool,  and  also  of  linen  yarn,  most  part  brought  out 
of  Scotland,  and  other  some  made  in  England,  and  no  part 
of  the  same  fustian  of  any  wool  at  all,  for  which  said  bom- 
bast and  yarn  imported,  his  Majesty  has  a  great  yearly 
sum  of  money  for  the  custom  and  subsidy  thereof." 

It  says  further  that  "40,000  pieces  of  fustian  were  made 
in  England,  the  subsidy  coming  to  eight  and  ten  pence  per 
piece,  and  thousands  of  poor  people  worked  on  these 
fustians." 

In  1503  sixpence  a  yard  was  paid  for  russet  cotton  for 
the  "Queen's  Choare,"  and  in  the  household  books  of  Lord 
William  Howard  in  1612-40  both  cotton  and  wool  are  men- 
tioned. Lewis  Roberts,  captain  and  merchant  of  London, 
speaks  in  his  "Treasures  of  Traffic"  in  1641  of  the  Turkey 
Company  bringing  cotton  and  cotton  yarn  from  Cyprus 
and  Smyrna. 

In  this  ancient  record  of  trade  Manchester  is  thus  early 
depicted  as  the  centre  of  a  flourishing  textile  industry,  and 
it  is  spoken  of  as  buying  yarn  of  the  Irish,  weaving  it,  and 
returning  it  to  Ireland  to  sell.  England  had  then  already 
begun  its  export  trade,  buying  cotton  from  India,  Cyprus, 
and  Smyrna,  and  making  it  into  fustians,  vermilions, 
dimities,  and  other  stuff,  and  sending  the  surplus  product 
abroad. 

The  East  India  Company  had  begun  the  importation 
of  calico  from  Calicut,  India,  in  1631;  and  for  a  long  time 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  39 

it  was  judged  to  be  a  soft  linen.  In  1663  the  question  was 
raised  what  revenue  tax  it  should  bear,  and  Pepys's  Diary, 
Feb.  27,  1663,  refers  to  the  question  as  follows: — 

"Sir  Martin  Noell  told  us  the  dispute  between  him  as  a 
farmer  of  the  additional  duty  and  the  East  India  Com- 
pany, whether  callico  be  linnen  or  no:  which  he  says  it  is, 
having  been  ever  esteemed  so;  they  say  it  is  made  of  cotton 
woole  and  grows  upon  trees,  not  like  flax  or  hemp.  But  it 
was  carried  against  the  company  though  they  stand  out 
against  the  verdict." 

The  result  is  not  known,  but  the  importation  was  small. 
The  section  of  England  about  Manchester  was  thus  early 
the  seat  of  a  growing  textile  industry,  which  was  later  to 
dominate  the  entire  textile  world;  and  the  industry  sprang 
up  here  through  the  settlement  at  an  early  date  of  the 
Flemish  spinners  and  weavers  from  Flanders,  who  quickly 
followed  in  the  train  of  William  the  Conqueror.  Then 
again  the  religious  persecutions  in  Europe  during  the  Middle 
Age,  particularly  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes 
in  France  in  1685,  as  we  have  seen,  drove  many  thousand 
skilful  Huguenot  weavers  to  England,  thus  strengthening 
the  English  industry  at  dear  cost  to  industrial  France. 

Of  so  little  importance  was  cotton  in  England  that  prior 
to  the  nineteenth  century  it  was  an  insignificant  article  of 
commerce,  and  in  1736  it  was  regarded  chiefly  as  an  orna- 
mental plant.  At  the  accession  of  George  III.  in  1760  the 
whole  importation  did  not  amount  to  more  than  200,000 
pounds,  and  in  1782  it  did  not  exceed  2,000,000. 


COLUMBUS   AND    COTTON 

The  first  mention  of  cotton  in  America  occurs  in  the 
journal  of  Christopher  Columbus,  who,  under  date  of  Oct. 
12,  1492,  describes  the  natives  of  Watling  Island,  where 
he  first  landed,  bringing,  among  other  things,  skeins  of 
cotton  thread  out  to  his  ship. 


40  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

"Afterwards  when  we  were  in  the  ship's  boats,"  he  con- 
tinues under  the  same  date,  "they  came  swimming  toward 
us,  and  brought  us  parrots  and  balls  of  cotton  thread  and 
spears,  and  many  other  things  which  they  exchanged  with 
us  for  other  things  which  we  gave  them,  such  as  strings  of 
beads  and  little  bells." 

Under  date  of  Oct.  13,  1492,  he  says  the  natives  were 
ready  to  trade  for  everything  down  to  bits  of  broken  crock- 
ery and  glass.  "I  saw  one  give  sixteen  skeins  of  cotton 
for  three  of  ceotis  of  Portugal,  equal  to  one  blanca  of  Spain, 
the  skeins  being  as  much  as  an  arroba  of  cotton  thread.  I 
shall  keep  it  and  shall  allow  no  one  to  take  it,  preserving  it 
all  for  your  Royal  Highnesses,  for  it  may  be  obtained  in 
abundance.  It  is  grown  on  this  island,  though  the  short 
time  did  not  admit  of  my  ascertaining  this  for  a  certainty." 

He  subsequently  found  trees  of  cotton  of  sufficient  fine 
quality  to  be  woven  into  good  cloth.  He  also  saw  handker- 
chiefs of  fine  cloth  very  symmetrically  woven  and  worked 
in  colors.  Under  date  of  October  16,  he  speaks  of  seeing,  on 
the  Island  of  Fernandina,  cotton  cloth  made  into  mantles. 
Speaking  again  under  date  of  October  16  of  cotton,  Colum- 
bus says  of  the  natives,  "Their  beds  and  bags  for  holding 
things  are  like  nets  made  of  cotton."  Here  Columbus  says 
they  "saw  married  women  wearing  breeches  made  of 
cotton,  but  the  girls  do  not,  except  some  who  have  reached 
eighteen." 

This  is  especially  interesting  because  it  shows  that  very 
early  the  American  natives,  particularly  those  of  the  South, 
not  only  raised  cotton,  but  wove  it  into  fabrics  and  garments 
of  various  kinds.  Balls  of  native  cotton  spun  on  distaffs 
by  natives  of  Guiana,  South  America,  and  similar  to  those 
spoken  of  by  Columbus,  are  to  be  seen  in  the  museum  at 
Georgetown,  Demerara. 

Magellan  found  the  natives  of  Brazil  using  cotton  lint 
for  making  beds  in  1519  when  he  circumnavigated  the 
globe.  Emperor  Charles  V.  received  from  Hernando 


FABRICS   WOVEN    BY   THE  BAKUBA  TRIBE,   AFRICA 

(From  the  Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts) 

Specimens  of  fabrics  woven  by  the  Bakuba  tribe  of  the  Congo  River 
section.  Both  show  no  evidence  of  contact  with  civilization.  The  pink 
grass  cloth  is  of  a  plain  weave.  The  black  and  white  design,  also  of  grass, 
has  a  pile  like  velvet. 

The  plain  piece  is  made  from  grass  cloth,  especially  for  chiefs. 


THE  STORY  OP  TEXTILES  41 

Cortez  cotton  goods  of  different  kinds  from  Mexico  at  the 
time  of  Cortez's  conquest.  They  comprised  cotton  mantles, 
white,  black  and  white,  red,  green,  yellow,  and  blue;  waist- 
coats, handkerchiefs,  counterpanes,  tapestries,  and  car- 
pets of  cotton,  some  of  the  colors  of  which  were  extremely 
fine.  In  fact,  cotton  was  in  use  among  the  Algonquins,  for 
Champlain  says  that  the  Indians  whom  he  encountered  at 
Lake  Champlain  July  2,  1609,  wore  arrow-proof  doublets 
made  of  strips  of  wood  bound  together  with  cotton. 

So  far  as  is  known,  the  first  mention  of  cotton  growing 
in  the  United  States  proper  is  by  De  Vica,  who  found  it  in 
1536  in  what  is  now  the  States  of  Louisiana  and  Texas. 
The  English  colonists  sowed  the  first  cotton-seed  in  Vir- 
ginia in  1607.  In  1620  a  pamphlet,  called  the  "Declaration 
of  the  State  of  Virginia,"  stated  that  cotton  wool  was  to  be 
had  there  in  abundance,  and  in  1621  cotton  is  quoted  at 
eightpence  a  pound.  Many  travellers  mention  the  culti- 
vation of  cotton  in  America  during  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury and  early  half  of  the  eighteenth  century.  It  is 
mentioned  in  Virginia  in  1649,  in  South  Carolina  in  1664, 
1682,  1702,  1731,  and  1741,  and  in  Georgia  in  1735,  1738, 
and  1749. 

It  was  regarded,  however,  as  a  garden  plant  rather  than 
for  domestic  use  in  most  localities  except  parts  of  South 
Carolina  and  Georgia,  and  it  was  not  until  after  the  Revo- 
lution that  its  cultivation  began,  as  we  shall  see  later,  on  a 
large,  systematic  scale  in  the  South.  There  were  two  causes 
which  militated  against  Southern  cotton  growing  during 
this  country's  connection  with  England.  The  first  was 
the  discouragement  by  England  of  the  establishment  of  any 
industry  in  this  country  that  would  compete  with  the 
English  cotton  industry;  and,  secondly,  there  were  no 
means  of  cleaning  the  American  cotton  from  the  seed  even 
after  it  was  grown,  so  that  it  was  only  when  the  Revolution 
cut  off  trade  with  England  that  the  Southern  cotton 
growers,  stimulated  by  the  home  demands,  set  about  growing 


42  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

cotton  systematically.  The  story  is  told  in  a  subsequent 
chapter. 

The  first  manufactory  of  cotton  in  America,  as  well  as  the 
first  establishment  of  the  textile  industry  in  America,  by  the 
whites  occurred  at  Rowley  in  1643,  and  is  described  by  Edward 
Johnson  in  his  book  "Wonder-working  Providence  of  Sion's 
Saviour  in  New  England,"  published  at  London  in  1654. 

It  may  be  interesting  to  glance  at  these  statistics  relating 
to  the  cotton  industry. 

The  world  supply  of  cotton  for  1909  was  8,505,191,000 
pounds,  of  which  the  United  States  produced  5,157,691,000, 
or  60.6  per  cent.;  British  India,  1,801,000,000;  Egypt, 
455,500,000;  Russia,  360,000,000;  China,  300,000,000; 
Brazil,  180,000,000;  and  Turkey,  16,000,000. 

The  value  of  the  United  States  crop  the  same  year  was 
$700,000,000.  Two-thirds  of  the  crop  of  this  country  is 
sent  to  foreign  countries.  No  less  than  9,000,000  persons 
are  employed  in  its  production,  handling,  and  manufacture. 
6,000,000  of  those  thus  engaged  are  farmers  and  farm 
laborers,  1,000,000  are  otherwise  engaged  to  some  extent 
in  the  United  States,  and  at  least  2,000,000  are  employed 
in  other  countries  in  its  transportation  and  in  the  manu- 
facture of  which  it  is  the  basis.  The  capital  engaged  in 
the  United  States  manufacturing  industry  in  1909  was 
$821,109,000,  and  the  value  of  the  output  was  $629,699,000. 
There  were  1,322  establishments  engaged  in  the  manufact- 
ure, employing  387,252  persons. 

The  number  of  cotton  spindles  and  mill  consumption  of 
the  world  for  1910  were  as  follows:  United  States,  29,189,000 
spindles,  using  4,799,000  bales;  United  Kingdom,  53,397,000 
spindles,  using  3,372,000  bales;  India,  5,657,000  spindles, 
using  1,653,000  bales;  Germany,  10,200,000  spindles,  using 
1,660,000  bales;  Russia,  8,250,000  spindles,  using  1,457,000 
bales;  France,  7,100,000  spindles,  using  951,000  bales; 
Japan,  2,005,000  spindles,  using  1,028,000  bales;  China, 
765,000  spindles,  using  315,000  bales;  Brazil,  1,000,000 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  43 

spindles,  using  370,000  bales;  and,  including  countries  of 
minor  importance,  a  total  is  reached  of  134,526,000  spindles, 
using  18,321,000  bales  of  500  pounds  each. 

Of  the  number  of  cotton  spindles  in  the  United  States 
in  1910  Massachusetts  had  9,853,610,  or  34  per  cent,  of 
the  whole  country;  South  Carolina  was  second,  with 
3,793,387,  or  13  per  cent.;  North  Carolina  was  third,  with 
3,124,456,  or  11  per  cent.;  Rhode  Island  fourth,  with  2,455,- 
304;  Georgia,  1,860,905;  New  Hampshire,  1,350,455;  Con- 
necticut, 1,332,991;  New  York,  1,024,114;  Maine,  1,010,535. 

Massachusetts  leads  in  the  consumption  of  cotton,  North 
Carolina  is  second,  South  Carolina  third,  Georgia  fourth, 
New  Hampshire  fifth,  Alabama  sixth,  and  Rhode  Island 
seventh. 

SILK 

The  derivation  of  the  term  "silk"  points  authoritatively 
to  the  East  as  the  place  of  origin  of  the  most  costly  of  all 
fabrics.  It  comes  with  various  changes  from  Seres,  the 
name  given  the  ancient  Chinese  and  the  inhabitants  of 
Eastern  Asia  by  the  Greeks,  Syrians,  and  Persians;  and  in 
the  Greek  it  took  the  name  serikon,  which  in  Latin  became 
sericum,  and  by  the  insertion  of  1  for  r,  in  the  language  of 
the  West,  changed  to  selicum,  silic,  and  eventually  silk. 

The  Greeks  and  Romans  supposed  it  was  a  woolly  sub- 
stance spun  from  the  leaves  of  trees,  and  for  fifteen  hundred 
years  after  it  became  known  in  Western  Europe  the  opinion 
that  it  grew  upon  a  tree  or  was  obtained  from  the  bark 
continued  to  be  the  belief.  Not  until  the  sixth  century  did 
two  Nestorian  monks,  who  brought  silkworm  eggs  from 
China  to  Constantinople,  make  the  truth  known. 

Silk  is  a  liquid  substance  secreted  from  their  food  by 
various  insects  of  different  families,  but  principally  by  the 
spider  and  the  silkworm  of  the  Bombycidse  family.  It  is 
held  in  cells  or  tubes  on  each  side  of  their  bodies  and  drawn 
out  through  minute  orifices  called  spinnerets.  As  these 


44  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

threads,  from  two  to  six  in  number,  are  pulled  out,  they 
harden  to  form  a  stronger  thread.  The  thread  is  used  by 
spiders  as  a  method  of  locomotion  or  as  a  net  to  trap  their 
prey;  while  others,  and  many  of  the  caterpillars,  weave 
it  into  cocoons  to  protect  their  eggs  and  into  which  they 
may  withdraw  when  about  to  go  into  the  chrysalis  state, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  true  silkworm. 

The  number  of  insects  that  yield  silk  is  very  large,  there 
being  no  less  than  one  hundred  species  of  the  spider  family. 
None  except  the  true  silkworm  produces  a  silk  that  can 
be  spun  profitably,  although  the  silk  of  the  spider  family 
is  of  most  exquisite  quality,  and  has  often  been  used  for 
making  small  articles  of  silk.  The  small  amount  of  the 
product  and  the  difficulty  of  controlling  spiders  make  such 
use  impracticable. 

The  best  silkworms  are  those  which  feed  on  the  leaves 
of  the  white  mulberry-tree,  and  go  through  their  changes 
but  once  a  year.  The  life  history  of  the  silkworm  is  like 
that  of  the  whole  moth  family.  The  female,  after  coming 
from  the  cocoon,  lives  three  or  four  days  or  a  week,  and 
then  lays  four  or  five  hundred  small  whitish  or  yellow  eggs. 
A  gummy  substance  holds  them  to  the  leaves  or  other 
object  on  which  they  may  be  laid,  and,  when  their  food 
is  ready,  they  are  hatched  and  at  first  are  not  over  one- 
twelfth  of  an  inch  in  length.  They  go  through  the  various 
changes  of  moulting  and  casting  their  skin  about  four  times 
in  twenty  or  fifty  days.  At  their  full  growth  they  are 
about  three  inches  in  length,  and  then  they  find  a  place 
to  spin  their  cocoon,  finishing  it  in  three  to  six  days  and 
going  into  the  chrysalis.  In  twenty  to  forty  days  the  insect 
emerges  from  the  cocoon,  and  in  a  few  days  is  ready  to  lay 
her  eggs.  The  cocoons  are  unravelled,  reeled,  carded,  spun, 
doubled  or  redoubled,  cleaned,  and  twisted  into  the  thread 
for  weaving  or  sewing. 

^  The  greatest  producer  of  manufactured  silk  is  probably 
China,  though  no  complete  statistics  are  available;  and 


This    species    pro<tu; 

uaijlo   v. 

caterpillars  feed  on  oak 
other  trees  !*•;> 
order.    The  »!  • 
lied  to  •: 

in  a  s<"! 

its  H;f..v<    i-<Kiiilrv 


Female  moth 


Cocoons  from  New  Chwar 
district.  China. 


The  Chiuese  Wild 


THE  EGGS.  CATERPILLAR.  COCOONS  AND  MOTH  OF  THE  SILKWORM 

(From  the  Commercial  Museum,  Philadelphia) 

The  eggs,  caterpillar,  cocoons,  male  and  female  moth,  of  the  wild  silk 
moth  of  China  and  Turkestan.  This  species  produces  the  large  amount 
of  valuable  wild  silk  of  China.  The  caterpillars  feed  on  oak  and  allied 
trees,  and  the  species  is  closely  related  to  the  Yamamai  of  Japan  and 
the  Tusar  of  India.  It  is  raised  in  a  semi-domestic  state  in  China. 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  45 

second  to  China  is  the  United  States,  for  since  1905  France 
has  fallen  into  third  place;  while  the  nations  that  are  most 
productive  of  raw  silk  in  the  order  of  their  output  are  China, 
Japan,  and  Italy.  In  1909  the  world  produced  85,048,000 
pounds,  of  which  China  raised  35,697,000;  Japan,  30,135,- 
000;  Italy,  9,373,000;  France,  1,486,000;  Austria-Hungary, 
838,000;  and  British  India,  513,000.  The  value  of  the 
silk  manufactures  of  the  United  States  for  1909  was  $196,- 
475,000,  capital  invested  was  $144,799,000,  and  the  number 
of  employees  was  104,261. 


EARLY   HISTORY   OF   SILK 

Like  wool,  cotton,  and  flax,  the  date  of  the  origin  of  silk 
is  uncertain.  Very  early  it  was  in  use  in  the  East,  and  well 
into  modern  times  it  continued  to  be  the  fabric  used  ex- 
clusively by  the  nobility,  or  royalty.  In  fact,  the  earliest 
historic  reference  has  a  royal  setting,  and  comes  from  the 
East.  According  to  Chinese  history,  silk  was  used  in  China 
thousands  of  years  before  Christ. 

The  Chinese  legend  regarding  the  discovery  of  the  use 
of  silk  in  a  "summary  of  the  principal  Chinese  treatises 
upon  the  culture  of  the  mulberry  and  the  rearing  of  silk- 
worms," compiled  and  translated  from  Mr.  Stanilas  Julien's 
French  edition  of  Chinese  Treatises,  printed  1836  at  Wash- 
ington, D.C.,  is  as  follows: — 

"This  great  prince  Hoang-ti  was  desirous  that  Si-ling-chi, 
his  legitimate  wife,  should  contribute  to  the  happiness 
of  his  people.  He  charged  her  to  examine  the  silkworms, 
and  to  test  the  practicability  of  using  the  thread.  Si-ling- 
chi  had  a  quantity  of  these  insects  collected,  which  she  fed 
herself  in  a  place  prepared  solely  for  that  purpose,  and  dis- 
covered not  only  the  means  of  raising  them,  but  also  the 
manner  of  reeling  and  of  employing  silk  to  make  garments." 

"It  is  through  gratitude  to  so  great  a  benefit  that  pos- 
terity has  deified  Si-ling-chi,  and  rendered  her  particular 


46  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

honors  under  the  name  of  'The  Goddess  of  Silk- Worms/ 
To  the  present  time  it  is  said  that  the  empress  of  China, 
on  a  certain  day  of  the  year,  goes  through  the  ceremony  of 
feeding  the  silkworms  and  rendering  homage  to  Si-ling-chi, 
as  'Goddess  of  Silk-Worms." 

The  date  of  this,  according  to  Chinese  chronology,  was 
2700  B.C.,  but  more  accurate  records  make  it  about  2640  B.C. 
Whichever  date  is  correct,  it  is  certain  that  the  manufact- 
ure of  silk  products  goes  back  to  a  very  early  date. 

To  the  Empress  Si-ling-chi  the  Chinese  also  ascribe 
the  invention  of  the  loom.  It  was  not  until  the  third 
century  A.D.  that  the  Japanese  learned  of  the  manufacture 
of  silk  through  the  Coreans,  and  then  they  sent  Coreans 
to  China  to  engage  people  to  teach  the  art  to  the  Japanese. 
Three  Chinese  girls  were  brought  back,  who  taught  the 
Japanese  court  and  people  the  art  of  plain  and  figure 
weaving. 

The  art  subsequently  spread  to  India,  where  it  was  in- 
troduced by  a  Chinese  princess,  who  carried  the  silkworm 
eggs  and  seeds  of  the  mulberry-tree  concealed  in  the  lining 
of  her  head-dress;  and  by  India  the  silk  was  made  known 
to  Europe.  For  many  centuries,  however,  the  Chinese 
had  a  monopoly  of  the  industry,  and  Tartar  caravans  car- 
ried loads  of  silk,  which  they  sold  to  Persian  and  Arabian 
traders. 

The  knowledge  of  silk  was  brought  to  Europe  by  Alex- 
ander the  Great  (356  to  323  B.C.)  when  he  returned  from 
India;  and  Aristotle  gave  full  particulars  of  the  silkworm, 
describing  it  as  a  horned  worm  which  he  called  Bombyx. 
It  passed  through  several  transformations  and  produced 
Bombykia.  According  to  Aristotle  the  Island  of  Cos  was 
a  flourishing  seat  of  early  silk  manufacturing. 

The  knowledge  of  silk  brought  by  Alexander  seems, 
however,  to  have  been  lost,  for  the  Romans  later  obtained 
silk  from  the  Greeks  and  thought  that  it  was  a  fleece  that 
grew  upon  trees.  This  became  the  early  belief  of  the 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  47 

western  world.  Nearchus  evidently  confused  silk  with 
cotton;  Virgil  supposed  silk  was  carded  from  leaves; 
Dionysius  thought  it  was  combed  from  flowers;  while 
Pliny  (23-79  A.D.)  describes  the  Bombyx,  but  makes  it  a 
native  of  Assyria. 

v  It  is  impossible  to  say  when  silk  came  into  use  among 
the  higher  classes  at  Rome,  but  there  is  authority  for  be- 
lieving that  it  was  first  worn  in  Rome  during  the  supremacy 
of  Julius  Caesar  (61-44  B.C.),  and  from  then  on  became  the 
dress  garment  of  the  Roman  nobility.  Its  price  was  very 
high,  selling  for  its  weight  in  gold.  Nevertheless,  silk 
had  such  a  vogue  among  the  wealthy  classes  that  the  Em- 
peror Tiberius  prohibited  men  from  wearing  it  on  the  ground 
that  it  was  effeminate,  and  Roman  satirists  denounced 
the  wearing  of  the  transparent  silk  of  Cos  by  either  sex 
because  of  the  indecency.  Emperor  Heliogabalus,  in 
222  A.D.,  shocked  his  subjects  by  appearing  in  a  garment 
of  thin  silk,  while  Emperor  Aurelian  in  273  A.D.  refused  the 
plea  of  his  wife  for  a  single  garment  of  purple  silk  on  the 
ground  of  extravagance,  saying  that  a  pound  of  silk  sold 
for  its  weight  in  gold,  and  that  wearing  it  would  be  an 
example  of  extravagance. 

Ammianus  Marcellinus,  380  A.D.,  stated  that  silk  had 
come  within  the  reach  of  the  common  people.  A  decree 
of  the  Emperor  Justinian  (518-565  A.D.),  that  silk  should 
be  sold  for  eight  pieces  of  gold  per  pound,  or  about  $15, 
together  with  a  war  with  Persia  whose  traders  were  the 
carriers  of  silk,  cut  off  all  importation  and  ruined  the  silk 
merchants. 

The  situation  was  relieved  by  two  Persian  monks,  who 
had  become  familiar  with  the  silk  industry  while  on  a  re- 
ligious embassy  to  the  Chinese,  and  who  informed  Justinian 
that  they  could  secure  from  China  the  means  of  establishing 
the  industry.  Accordingly,  at  Justinian's  command  they 
returned  to  China,  observed  carefully  the  whole  process 
of  the  industry,  and  536  A.D.  brought  back  to  Constanti- 


48  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

nople  the  seeds  of  the  mulberry-tree  and  the  eggs  of  the 
silkworm  concealed  in  hollow  staves,  and  thus  was  the 
silk  industry  established  in  Europe.  Byzantine  silk  soon 
came  much  in  demand  for  ecclesiastical  purposes. 

The  silk  industry  spread  from  Constantinople  to  Thebes 
and  other  Grecian  cities,  and  the  Arabs  and  the  Saracen 
princes,  who  obtained  the  knowledge  of  silk-making  from 
the  Persians,  introduced  it  into  Northern  Africa,  Spain, 
Portugal,  and  Sicily.  By  the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries 
the  output  of  Spain  and  Sicily  was  large,  and  workmen 
subsequently  carried  the  industry  thence  to  Italy. 

The  conquest,  by  the  Venetians  in  the  twelfth  century, 
of  Constantinople,  where  the  rarest  kinds  of  silk  were 
made,  transferred  the  early  European  silk  industry  to 
Venice,  whose  looms  then  began  to  supply  Europe.  The 
principal  seats  of  the  silk  manufacture  in  the  fourteenth 
century  were  Lucca,  Modena,  Bologna,  and  Florence.  Genoa 
also  had  a  flourishing  trade. 

By  1251  silk  garments  were  generally  used  by  the  higher 
classes  in  England.  A  thousand  knights  appeared  in  silk 
at  the  marriage  of  Henry  III.'s  daughter,  and  silk  was 
worn  by  the  wealthiest  citizens.  The  earliest  official 
recognition  of  silk  in  England  occurs  in  an  act  of  Edward 
III.  (1336-60)  which  restricted  merchants  to  manufacture 
or  trade  in  a  single  line  of  goods,  and  made  imperative  a 
declaration  of  the  line  they  would  engage  in  before  a  cer- 
tain date.  Again  in  1455  an  act  was  passed  prohibiting  the 
importation  of  silk  for  five  years. 

Although  the  silk  trade  was  begun  at  Tours  and  at  Lyons, 
France,  in  the  thirteenth  century,  it  was  not  until  the  close 
of  the  sixteenth  century  that  the  silk  production  was  well 
established  there.  It  is  said  that  the  first  white  mulberry- 
tree  planted  in  France  was  brought  there  by  Guipape  de  St. 
Aubon  from  Syria,  about  1147,  on  his  return  from  the  Second 
Crusade,  and  was  planted  three  leagues  from  Montmeliart. 
This  tree  was  still  standing  in  1810.  From  the  twelfth 


Fine    wool   fibres,  magnified  300  A  and  B,  wild  African  cotton;  C 

times.  and  D,  rough  Peruvian  magnified 

many  times. 


Flax  fibre  x  200  diameters. 


I 


Silk  fibre  x  300  diameters.  A  and 
B  show  the  gum  on  the  fibre;  C, 
the  clean  fibre. 


ENLARGED  REPRODUCTIONS  OF  TEXTILE  FIBRES 

(From  F.  H.  Boirman's  "The  Structure  of  the  Cotton  Fibre,"  Courtesy  of  The 
MacmiUan  Company) 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  49 

century  on,  efforts  were  made  by  the  French  kings  to  es- 
tablish the  production  of  silkworms  and  the  growth  of 
the  mulberry-trees,  but  without  success  until  the  reign  of 
Henry  of  Navarre. 

This  energetic  monarch  planted  about  Paris  a  large  grove 
of  mulberry-trees  under  the  direction  of  Ollivier  de  Serres, 
a  skilled  agriculturist,  distributed  the  eggs,  and  offered 
bounties  for  silk  and  the  most  productive  trees.  The  ex- 
periment failed,  and  the  people,  irritated  by  the  loss  of 
profit,  rooted  up  the  trees,  destroyed  the  worms,  and  gave 
up  the  industry. 

Persisting,  however,  the  king  converted  a  large  orange 
grove  on  his  own  estate  into  a  mulberry  grove,  and  soon 
had  a  quantity  of  silk.  His  success  shamed  the  people 
who  had  given  up  silk  growing,  and  they  resumed  the  work 
again  under  skilful  teachers,  and  soon  acquired  success; 
but  it  had  cost  the  king  about  two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars. 

Colbert,  the  great  minister  of  Louis  XIV.,  kept  a  guardian 
eye  over  the  silk  production;  but  the  Edict  of  Nantes  almost 
ruined  the  industry,  as  it  drove  almost  four  hundred  thou- 
sand Huguenots,  most  of  whom  were  engaged  in  the  work, 
from  France  to  England,  Germany,  and  Switzerland,  and  of 
this  number  almost  one  hundred  thousand  went  to  England. 

The  first  efforts  to  start  the  industry  in  England  were 
unsuccessful,  but  the  introduction  of  the  Italian  method 
of  throwing,  or  twisting,  silk  soon  made  it  possible  for  Eng- 
lish silk  to  replace  the  French  in  the  European  market,  and 
it  was  years  before  France  regained  her  supremacy.  Silk 
had,  however,  by  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  come 
into  common  use  among  the  nobility  in  England,  and  Queen 
Elizabeth  and  her  court  were  the  first  to  wear  silk  stockings. 

"I  have  written  into  Spain  for  silk  hose  both  for  you  and 
my  lady,  your  wife,  to  whom  it  may  please  you,  I  may  be 
remembered,"  wrote  Sir  Thomas  Gresham,  April  30,  1560, 
from  Antwerp  to  Sir  William  Cecil,  Elizabeth's  great 


50  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

minister,  and  the  hose  sent  soon  after  were  black.  Until 
the  time  of  Henry  VIII.  stockings  were  of  ordinary  cloth, 
and  the  king's  were  yard-wide  taffeta. 

Sir  Thomas  Gresham  sent  Edward  VI.  a  pair  of  long 
Spanish  silk  stockings.  In  the  second  year  of  Queen  Bess's 
reign  "her  silk  woman,"  Mistress  Montague,  gave  the 
queen  a  pair  she  had  knit  of  black  silk  for  a  New  Year's 
gift.  After  the  queen  had  worn  them  a  few  days,  she  was 
so  pleased  she  sent  for  Mistress  Montague  and  asked  her 
"where  she  had  them,"  and  if  she  could  help  her  to  any 
more,  who  answered,  "I  made  them  very  carefully  of  pur- 
pose only  for  your  Majesty,  and  seeing  these  please  you  so 
well  I  will  presently  set  more  in  hand." 

"Do  so,"  quoth  the  queen,  "for  indeed  I  like  silk  stock- 
ings so  well,  because  they  are  so  pleasant,  fine,  and  deli- 
cate, that  henceforth  I  will  wear  no  more  cloth  stockings," 
and  from  that  day  she  wore  silk. 

Among  the  other  weavers  which  the  Edict  of  Nantes 
drove  from  France  to  England  was  a  large  number  of  silk 
weavers,  and  the  manufacture  of  broad  silks  began  in  Eng- 
land during  the  reign  of  James  I. 

Such  a  foothold  had  the  industry  obtained  by  1701  that 
acts  were  passed  prohibiting  the  importation  of  silk  from 
France,  China,  Persia,  and  India  because  there  were  as 
good  made  in  England.  It  was  not  until  1715  that  a  silk 
throwing  mill  was  established  in  England. 

The  silk  machinery  used  in  England  until  the  beginning 
of  the  eighteenth  century  was  crude  and  ineffective.  Much 
of  the  organzine  silk  warp  was  imported  from  Italy.  In 
1717,  however,  John  Lombe  went  to  Italy,  and,  disguised 
as  a  workman,  secured  employment  in  one  of  the  mills. 
By  bribing  workmen,  he  obtained  an  opportunity  to  examine 
the  machinery  privately  when  it  was  not  working,  and  thus 
learned  all  the  details  of  construction.  He  was  discovered 
eventually,  and  obliged  to  flee  with  his  accomplices  to 
England.  He  secured  patents  for  fourteen  years,  and  in 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  51 

1719  erected  a  silk  mill  on  the  Derwent  at  Derby.  In  1721 
bounties  were  granted  on  home  production,  and  in  1749 
silk  from  Georgia  and  the  Carolinas  was  admitted  free  of 
duty. 

SILK  INDUSTRY   IN  AMERICA 

Long  before  this  efforts  were  made  to  start  silk  culture  in 
America.  Cortez  in  1531  brought  the  mulberry-tree  and 
silkworms  to  Mexico,  where  both  were  successfully  grown, 
silk  spun  and  woven,  and  sent  to  Europe.  By  the  end  of 
the  century,  however,  the  industry  had  ceased. 

The  visionary  James  I.  of  England  became  very  much 
interested  in  the  cultivation  of  silk  in  Virginia,  and  in 
1619  ordered  the  shipment  of  silkworms  to  that  colony, 
urging  their  cultivation  in  place  of  tobacco,  offering  bounties 
for  the  silk  produced,  and  placing  penalties  for  the  failure 
to  plant  mulberry-trees.  The  next  year  saw  the  industry 
established,  and  it  continued  thriving  moderately  under 
the  stimulus  of  premiums  offered  by  the  Colonial  Assembly 
until  1666,  when  the  bounty  was  withdrawn.  The  culture 
rapidly  decreased  and  soon  was  abandoned. 

At  one  time  the  Assembly  offered  ten  thousand  pounds 
of  tobacco  to  the  planter  who  would  export  two  hundred 
pounds  of  raw  silk  or  cocoons  in  a  single  year,  five  thousand 
pounds  of  tobacco  to  the  producer  of  one  thousand  pounds 
of  raw  silk,  and  four  thousand  pounds  of  tobacco  to  any 
planter  who  would  devote  himself  exclusively  to  silk  raising. 

It  is  not  known  that  the  premiums  were  ever  earned. 
Some  silk  was  sent  abroad,  and  there  is  a  tradition  that  one 
of  the  King  Charles  of  England  had  a  robe  made  of  it.  Even 
after  the  culture  of  silk  was  abandoned  in  Virginia,  there  are 
stories  of  men  appearing  in  silk  waistcoats  or  with  hand- 
kerchiefs of  their  own  raising,  or  ladies  appearing  in  a 
gown  of  native  grown  silk. 

The  failure  of  Virginia  seemed  only  to  spur  on  some  of 
the  other  colonies  to  engage  in  silk  culture,  and  the  other 


52  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

colonial  governments  offered  various  inducements  for  the 
spread  of  the  industry.  By  1712  the  colonial  exports 
averaged  five  hundred  pounds  annually.  In  1732  Georgia's 
colonial  government  allotted  a  piece  of  ground  as  a  nur- 
sery for  white  mulberry-trees,  and  granted  lands  to  settlers 
on  condition  they  plant  one  hundred  white  mulberry-trees 
on  every  ten  acres  cleared. 

The  result  was  that  in  1735  Governor  Oglethorpe  took 
eight  pounds  of  silk  to  England  which  was  used  as  a  dress 
for  Queen  Caroline.  The  industry  became  established  in 
South  Carolina  in  the  same  year,  and  in  1762  began  in 
Connecticut,  although  as  long  before  as  1734  the  Connecti- 
cut General  Assembly  had  passed  an  act  for  the  encourage- 
ment of  silk  raising,  which  was  to  continue  in  force  for  ten 
years. 

The  removal  by  the  English  government  in  1749  of  all 
duties  on  silk  imported  from  Georgia  or  Carolina  led  to 
increased  importations,  and  by  1759  large  quantities  of 
raw  silk  were  being  sent  by  the  colonies  to  England,  often 
commanding  higher  prices  there  than  the  best  Italian  silk. 

A  reeling  establishment  was  founded  at  Savannah  in 
1750,  and  the  good  quality  of  the  Georgia  silk  was  doubt- 
less due  to  a  visit  made  the  year  before  by  Signor  Otto- 
lengi,  an  Italian  expert,  who  was  sent  to  Georgia  to  establish 
a  silk  filature  for  reeling,  doubling,  cleaning,  and  twisting 
the  silk.  The  quantity  of  the  cocoons  received  at  the  fila- 
ture was  so  great  that  in  1759  the  export  of  raw  silk  from 
Georgia  exceeded  ten  thousand  pounds,  and  the  quality 
was  so  good  as  to  bring  three  shillings  more  per  pound  in 
London  than  any  other  silk  in  the  world.  The  silk  culture 
reached  its  height  in  Georgia  in  1759,  and  by  1772  had 
practically  ceased.  It  was  not  long  before  cotton  had 
driven  silk  culture  from  the  South. 

Half  an  ounce  of  mulberry  seed  was  sent  to  every  parish 
in  Connecticut  in  1766,  and  for  a  time  the  legislature  of- 
fered a  bounty  on  mulberry-trees  and  raw  silk.  A  piece  of 


II 


>.  < 

' 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  53 

mantua,  60  yards  in  length,  was  spun  and  woven  from  her 
own  cocoons  in  1770  by  Mrs.  Susanna  Wright  at  Columbia, 
Pa.,  and  afterwards  worn  as  a  court  dress  by  the  Queen  of 
England.  By  about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century 
Philadelphia  had  become  an  important  seat  of  the  industry. 

During  the  Revolution  the  silk  industry  languished,  and 
all  manufacture  ceased,  except  enough  to  supply  a  small 
local  demand.  Hardly  had  the  Revolution  ended  before  the 
industry  sprang  up  with  great  vigor  under  the  impetus  of 
bounties.  Mansfield,  Conn.,  had  become  an  important  silk- 
raising  section  in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
and  here,  in  1810,  the  first  silk  mill  in  America  was  set  up, 
as  we  shall  see  later. 

In  1785  a  company  was  formed  in  Connecticut  for  the 
culture  of  silk,  and  also  its  manufacture.  The  company 
which  was  formed  at  Mansfield  and  incorporated  in  1789 
was  called  "The  Directors,  Inspectors,  and  Company  of 
Connecticut  Silk  Manufacturers."  It  included  the  names 
of  many  who  are  the  ancestors  of  the  successful  silk  manu- 
facturers of  to-day. 

As  the  quality  of  American  silk  did  not  keep  pace  with  the 
Italian,  being  too  fine,  uneven,  and  often  defective  in  color, 
it  became,  about  1800,  difficult  to  find  a  market  for  it,  al- 
though by  this  time  silk  had  become  an  article  of  domestic 
manufacture  in  the  East,  many  families  making  their  five, 
ten,  and  fifty  pounds  of  silk  annually.  The  silk  production 
was  greater  in  Connecticut  and  Pennsylvania  than  else- 
where, though  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Delaware,  Mary- 
land, and  Virginia  also  produced  all  of  the  domestic  silk. 
The  silk  was  badly  reeled  on  a  hand  loom  and  roughly  spun 
on  the  large  wheel  used  for  spinning  wool.  By  1810  New 
London,  Windham,  and  Tolland  Counties,  Connecticut, 
were  turning  out  $28,503  worth  annually,  and  half  as  much 
more  of  the  waste  silk. 

Much  of  the  success  of  the  early  industry  was  due  to 
Edmund  Golding,  an  English  throwster,  who  came  to 


54  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

America  in  1827  when  he  was  but  seventeen.  He  met 
Alfred  Lilly,  whom  he  told  of  his  previous  occupation,  and 
who  became  interested  in  him.  Golding  made  sketches 
of  the  silk  machines  used  in  England,  and  finally  Mr.  Lilly, 
Captain  Joseph  Conant,  William  A.  Fiske,  William  Atwood, 
Storrs  Hovey,  and  Jesse  Bingham  formed  a  copartnership, 
in  1827-28,  under  the  name  Mansfield  Silk  Company,  to 
install  and  operate  machines  for  making  silk.  Lilly  took 
charge  of  procuring  the  machinery,  much  of  which  he  made 
in  his  own  shop  and  obtained  some  from  regular  machinists. 
It  was  put  in  operation  under  the  direction  of  Golding.  A 
building  and  power  was  subsequently  obtained  in  Gurley- 
ville,  and  this  mill  was  the  first  in  America  where  the  man- 
ufacture of  silk  was  commercially  successful. 

The  first  silk  mill  in  America,  however,  was  probably 
that  erected  in  1810  by  Rodney  and  Horatio  Hanks,  at 
Mansfield,  where  an  effort  was  made,  in  a  building  12  X  12 
feet,  to  make  sewing  silk  and  twist  by  machinery  they  had 
made.  But  it  was  not  practical.  Great  difficulties  were 
encountered  by  the  Mansfield  Silk  Company,  as  the  ma- 
chinery was  crude,  and  was  not  adapted  to  silk  as  it  was 
then  reeled  in  America.  In  order  to  compete  with  Italian 
sewing  silk,  the  promoters  had  to  import  raw  silk  from 
England. 

In  1829  the  Mansfield  Silk  Company  was  incorporated, 
and  thus  public  attention  was  directed  to  it.  Among  the 
visitors  was  a  Mr.  Brown,  an  Englishman,  who  explained 
the  process  of  reeling  and  showed  how  to  construct  the 
right  kind  of  a  reel.  It  was  very  successful,  and  American 
silk  was  found  to  be  of  superior  quality  and  became  much 
in  demand,  mulberry  nurseries  being  established  by  the 
company  in  all  the  adjoining  States.  Nathan  Rixford 
made  several  improvements  upon  Golding's  machines,  and 
for  some  years  was  the  principal  builder  of  silk  machinery. 
The  Mansfield  Company  was  not  a  success,  and  was  finally 
dissolved  in  1839. 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  55 

The  Connecticut  legislature  offered  a  bounty  in  1832  for 
mulberry  culture,  and  fixed  the  price  of  raw  silk  at  fifty 
cents  a  pound.  Maine,  Massachusetts,  New  Jersey,  and 
Pennsylvania  soon  offered  similar  bounties.  Mr.  Golding, 
with  Messrs.  Salmon  Storrs  &  Son,  later  built  another  mill 
at  Mansfield  and  equipped  it  with  Rixford  machinery.  It 
was  successful  for  more  than  ten  years. 

The  first  successful  silk  dyers  in  the  United  States  were 
Edward  Vallentine  and  Lewis  Leigh,  who  had  emigrated 
from  England  in  1838.  Many  processes  were  improved 
by  them.  Vallentine  commenced  business  at  Gurleyville, 
Conn.,  and  gained  a  wide  reputation  by  the  use  of  new 
colors  and  a  permanent  black.  In  1839-40  he  moved  his 
business  to  Northampton,  and  died  about  1851. 

The  first  silk  mill  in  Paterson,  N.J.,  was  set  up  by 
Christopher  Colt,  Jr.,  in  1838,  on  the  fourth  floor  of  Samuel 
Colt's  pistol  factory.  The  first  loom  for  weaving  piece 
goods  was  built  in  1842  by  Mr.  John  Ryle,  the  father  of 
the  present  silk  industry  in  America,  who  started  in  Pat- 
erson, N.J.,  in  1840.  To-day  Paterson  is  the  centre  of  the 
American  silk  industry.  The  real  establishment  of  Ameri- 
can supremacy  in  silk  manufacturing  dates  from  1860,  and 
was  the  result  of  French  silks  being  admitted  to  English 
markets  free  of  duty.  As  the  English  silk  throwsters  and 
weavers  were  forced  from  their  own  market,  they  came 
here,  bringing  their  skill  and  machinery  with  them,  and 
many  settled  at  Paterson.  The  industry  was  further 
favored  by  the  tariff  of  1861  and  later  by  the  import  duty, 
which  ranged  from  40  per  cent,  to  60  per  cent.  The  story 
of  Paterson  is  told  more  fully  later. 

Manufacturing  began  at  Philadelphia  in  1815,  and  in 
1824  the  Jacquard  loom  was  first  used  there.  By  1830, 
3,200  pounds  of  silk  were  raised  in  Mansfield,  and  in  the 
same  year  the  Chinese  mulberry-tree  was  introduced  be- 
cause of  its  rapid  growth  and  abundant  leaves.  Previous 
to  this  silkworms  in  the  United  States  had  been  fed 


56  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

on  white  mulberry-trees.  In  1838  power  loom  weaving 
began. 

An  unsuccessful  manufactory  of  silk  ribbons  from  Amer- 
ican silk  was  started  in  1829  at  Baltimore,  but  came  to 
a  speedy  end.  John  McRae  began  making  silk  fringes, 
tassels,  and  braids  in  New  York  City  in  1830. 

The  beginning  of  the  silk  industry  at  Florence,  Mass., 
was  in  1832,  when  the  "Old  Oil  Mill,"  which  for  over  a  cen- 
tury had  stood  as  a  grist-mill  on  the  Mill  River,  under  the 
direction  of  Samuel  Whitmarsh,  an  early  silk  enthusiast, 
was  equipped  as  a  silk  mill,  with  machinery  made  by  Nathan 
Rixford.  The  New  York  &  Northampton  Silk  Company 
was  formed  in  1833-34,  and  among  those  who  took  stock 
in  the  new  company  were  Augustus  and  Samuel  Russell, 
who  had  established  the  firm  of  Russell  &  Co.,  the  foremost 
American  trading  house  in  China. 

A  brick  building  was  erected  and  acres  stocked  with  mul- 
berry-trees to  supply  worms  for  the  raw  silk.  Mr.  Whit- 
marsh  even  had  two  hothouses,  one  hundred  feet  long, 
attached  to  his  house  at  Northampton  for  raising  mulberry- 
trees  in  winter.  Whitmarsh  became  president  of  the  com- 
pany. Watch  ribbons  and  satin  vests  were  made:  some  of 
the  heavy  black  vests  were  presented  to  Henry  Clay,  Daniel 
Webster,  and  A.  A.  Lawrence,  who  had  shown  interest  in 
the  enterprise. 

"I  shall  make  $250,000  before  next  winter,"  said  Mr. 
^Whitmarsh  in  the  summer  of  1839  to  John  Ryle,  who  later 
became  the  father  of  the  Paterson  silk  industry  and  was 
then  a  weaver  in  Whitmarsh's  employ.  Before  winter 
the  company  had  failed,  and  Whitmarsh  had  neither  money 
nor  credit.  Although  over  a  hundred  thousand  dollars  was 
sunk  by  the  company,  it  eventually  paid  its  debts. 

In  1835  the  Connecticut  Silk  Manufacturing  Company 
was  formed  at  Hartford,  Christopher  Colt  being  president 
and  largest  stockholder.  The  company  collapsed  in  1838. 
Soon  after  1844  the  Nonatuck  Silk  Company  was  organized 


THE  MULE 

(According  to  Richard  Guest) 

Figure  1. — A,  the  roving;  B,  the  first  pair  of  rollers;  C,  the  second  pair, 
revolving  quicker  than  the  first.  The  roving  and  rollers  are  placed  on  a 
fixed  frame.  D,  movable  carriage  on  which  the  spindles  stand.  This  car- 
riage recedes  from  the  fixed  frame  when  drawing  out  the  yarn  and  returns  to 
it  when  the  yarn  is  copped,  or  wound  upon  the  spindles.  E,  a  spindle. 
The  spindles  are  turned  by  strings  from  a  drum,  each  string  turning  two 
spindles.  F,  the  drop  rod. 

Figure  2. — GGG,  the  fixed  frame  on  which  stands  HH.  The  second  pair 
of  rollers  represented  at  C.  II,  the  movable  carriage;  K,  the  spindles; 
L,  the  drop  rod. 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  57 

at  Florence,  with  S.  L.  Hinckley  as  president  and  S.  L. 
Hill  as  treasurer,  and  since  has  grown  into  the  plant  which 
makes  the  famous  Corticelli  brand  of  sewing  silk. 

To  the  genius  and  persistence  of  the  Cheney  Brothers 
was  due  the  establishment  of  the  silk  industry  at  South 
Manchester  and  Hartford,  Conn.  They  were  sons  of  a 
farmer,  and  while  boys  had  become  interested  in  the  rais- 
ing of  silkworms.  Two  became  skilful  artists,  another 
became  a  merchant  in  Providence,  while  others  continued 
to  farm. 

Ward,  Rush,  Frank,  and  Ralph  Cheney  in  January,  1838, 
started  at  South  Manchester  the  Mount  Nebo  Silk  Mills, 
establishing  also  orchards,  cocooneries,  and  a  magazine 
called  the  Silk  Growers9  Manual,  which  lasted  from  July, 
1838,  to  July,  1840.  After  a  short  time  the  mill  closed, 
but  about  1841  was  reopened  with  new  machinery.  Sewing 
silk,  twist,  ribbon,  handkerchiefs,  and  later  broad  goods 
were  made,  and  soon  spun  silk  was  being  fashioned  into 
pongees  and  handkerchiefs.  Under  the  beneficial  effect  of 
the  Civil  War  tariff  the  brothers  were  able  to  establish 
themselves  as  makers  of  the  cheapest  and  most  serviceable 
silks  of  their  kind  on  the  market.  The  mill  was  built  at 
Hartford  in  1854,  and  since  the  firm  of  Cheney  Brothers 
has  grown  into  the  leading  firm  of  its  kind  in  America. 

The  silk  industry  of  William  Skinner  dates  from  1848, 
when  he  went  from  Holyoke  and  established  his  mills  at 
Northampton.  In  1854  he  moved  to  Haydenville  and 
built  his  Unquomonk  Silk  Mills,  which  were  among  the 
largest  in  Connecticut.  They  were  swept  away  May  16, 
1874,  by  the  bursting  of  the  Williamsburg  Reservoir  on  the 
Mill  River.  One  hundred  and  forty-eight  lives  were  lost, 
and  a  million  dollars'  worth  of  property,  including  all  of 
the  town  of  Skinnerville,  as  the  village  where  the  mill  was 
located  was  called.  He  started  again  at  Holyoke,  and  the 
firm  has  become  one  of  the  best  known  in  the  country. 

A  disastrous  silk  speculation  broke  out  in  the  Eastern 


58  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

States  in  1836.  Cuttings  two  feet  long  sold  from  $25  to 
$500  per  hundred.  All  kinds  of  crops  were  displaced  to 
make  room  for  it:  one  nurseryman  ordered  5,000,000  trees 
from  France,  sending  $80,000  in  advance  payment.  After 
running  madly  for  three  years,  the  speculation  collapsed, 
so  that  in  1840  trees  were  sold  for  five  cents  each,  thousands 
were  ruined,  and  the  silk  industry  checked  for  years. 

The  high  price  of  labor  has  hampered  production  of 
raw  silk  in  the  United  States,  so  that  it  has  not  kept  pace 
with  the  manufacture.  Much  of  the  raw  silk  comes  from 
China,  Japan,  Bengal,  and  other  parts  of  the  East,  where 
labor  is  cheap.  An  attempt  was  made  in  1854  to  raise 
silk  in  California.  Blight  of  the  mulberry-trees  has,  how- 
ever, prevented  successful  silkworm  culture  in  the  United 
States,  and  to-day  practically  all  of  the  raw  silk  used  by 
the  United  States  is  imported. 


CHAPTER  III 

FACTORY  SYSTEM 

GROWTH  OF  THE  FACTORY  SYSTEM — EARLIEST  RECORD   OF  ENGLISH 

FACTORY ENGLISH    NAMES    DERIVED     FROM     INDUSTRY CAUSES 

OF  THE   CONCENTRATION   IN    LANCASTER SEPARATION   OF   AGRI- 
CULTURE   AND    SPINNING   AND    WEAVING EARLY    RELATIONSHIP 

OF   EMPLOYER   AND    EMPLOYEE INVENTIONS   AND   THE   FACTORY 

SYSTEM — INFLUENCE  OF  FACTORY  ON  ENGLISH  SOCIAL  LIFE 

It  is  not  easy  to  find  in  ancient  or  mediaeval  history  any 
perfect  parallel  to  the  factory  system  as  we  understand  it 
and  as  it  developed  in  England  and  in  America.  The  mod- 
ern conception  of  a  factory — a  place  where  products  are 
produced  by  power  for  commercial  use — had  no  existence 
prior  to  the  invention  of  the  steam-engine  save  in  a  very 
primitive  way.  Here  and  there  we  find  organizations  of 
workmen  producing  goods  jointly  for  commercial  use,  but 
very  few  traces  of  machines  are  to  be  found  save  in  the 
production  of  primitive  textiles.  There  were,  it  is  true, 
ancient  guilds  just  as  there  were  mediaeval  guilds.  We 
know  scarcely  anything  of  the  working  of  the  ancient 
guilds,  but  our  knowledge  of  the  mediaeval  guilds  is  some- 
what comprehensive.  These  had  full  and  even  despotic 
control,  a  completeness  of  organization  with  which  the 
modern  trade  union  is  entirely  unfamiliar.  They  fixed 
often  not  only  prices,  but  conditions  of  work,  and  in  some 
instances  there  grew  up  within  the  industrial  centres  con- 
trolled by  these  mediaeval  guilds  industries  in  which  men 
collectively  worked  at  the  production  of  commercial  prod- 
ucts. And  here  we  can  find  traces  of  the  factory  system, 
at  least  as  far  as  the  collective  labor  of  workmen  is  con- 
cerned. But  the  factory  system  as  we  now  understand  it 


60  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

was  the  offspring  of  the  centralization  of  industry  brought 
about  by  a  combination  of  three  factors, — the  growing  skill 
of  operatives,  the  combination  of  capital,  and  the  use  of 
machinery;  but,  as  the  industry  of  the  ancient  and  medi- 
aeval world  lacked  steam-driven  machinery,  it  never  at- 
tained the  true  factory  system. 

Nevertheless,  an  embryonic  factory  system  existed  among 
the  Romans  in  the  time  of  the  Csesars,  and  is  described  by 
Ferrero.  He  says  "that  it  was  the  duty  of  a  woman,  if 
she  was  nobly  born,  to  know  all  the  arts  of  good  house- 
keeping, and  especially,  as  most  important,  spinning  and 
weaving.  The  reason  for  this  lay  in  the  fact  that  for 
aristocratic  families,  who  were  in  possession  of  vast  lands 
and  many  flocks,  it  was  easy  to  provide  themselves  from 
their  own  estates  with  the  wool  necessary  to  clothe  all 
their  household,  from  masters  to  the  numerous  retinue  of 
slaves.  If  the  materfamilias  knew  sufficiently  well  the 
arts  of  spinning  and  weaving  to  be  able  to  organize  in  the 
home  a  small  factory  of  slaves  engaged  in  such  tasks,  and 
knew  how  to  direct  and  supervise  them,  to  make  them  work 
with  zeal  and  without  theft,  she  could  provide  the  clothing 
for  the  whole  household,  thus  saving  the  heavy  expense 
of  buying  stuffs  from  a  merchant, — notable  economy  in 
times  when  money  was  scarce,  and  every  family  tried  to 
make  as  little  use  of  it  as  possible." 

A  mediaeval  trace  of  the  factory  system  may  also  be  found 
among  the  silk  throwsters  in  Italy,  where  craftsmen  in  the 
industry  congregated  in  certain  localities.  Although  the 
beginning  of  the  factory  system  was  an  early  specialization 
of  parts  of  the  industry  in  the  hands  of  different  persons, 
its  growth  and  development  were  slow  until  the  manu- 
facture of  cotton  became  a  leading  industry,  and  the  in- 
vention of  the  steam-engine  and  textile  machinery  so  greatly 
increased  the  production. 


ANCIENT   EGYPTIANS  SPINNING   AND   WEAVING 

(From  an  old  print) 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  61 


EARLIEST   RECORD   OF   ENGLISH   FACTORY 

i 

The  first  industry  of  which  there  is  any  record  in  England 
that  might  be  called  a  "factory  system"  was  run  by  John 
Winchcombe,  popularly  known  as  "Jack  of  Newbury." 
So  famous  did  he  become  that  he  entertained  Henry  VIH. 
and  his  first  wife  Catherine  in  his  Newbury  home.  Winch- 
combe,  who  died  in  1520,  is  described  in  Fuller's  "Worthies" 
as  "the  most  considerable  clothier  without  fancy  or  fiction 
England  ever  beheld.  His  looms  were  his  lands,  whereof 
he  kept  one  hundred  in  his  house,  each  managed  by  a  man 
and  a  boy." 

So  great  was  the  fame  of  his  factory  that  it  was  described 
in  the  following  poetic  lines  written  while  his  firm  was  still 
a  household  word  in  fashionable  London: — 

"Within  one  room,  being  large  and  long, 
There  stood  two  hundred  looms  full  strong; 
Two  hundred  men,  the  truth  is  so, 
Wrought  in  these  looms  all  in  a  row; 
By  every  one  a  pretty  boy 
Sat  making  quills  with  mickle  joy. 
And  in  another  place  hard  by 
A  hundred  women  merrily 
Were  carding  hard  with  joyful  cheer 
Who  singing  sat  with  voices  clear; 
And  in  a  chamber  close  beside 
Two  hundred  maidens  did  abide. 

These  pretty  maids  did  never  lin, 
But  in  their  place  all  day  did  spin! 

•  •••*• 

Then  to  another  room  came  they 
Where  children  were  in  poor  array, 
And  every  one  sat  picking  wool, 
The  finest  from  the  coarse  to  cull; 
The  number  was  seven  score  and  ten, 
The  children  of  poor  silly  men. 


62  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

Within  another  place  likewise 
Full  fifty  proper  men  he  spied, 
And  these  were  sheer  men  every  one 
Whose  skill  and  cunning  there  was  shown! 

A  dye-house  likewise  he  had  then 
Wherein  he  kept  full  forty  men; 
And  also  in  his  fulling  mill 
Full  twenty  persons  kept  he  still." 

As  Thomas  Fuller  says,  in  his  "History  of  the  Worthies 
of  England":  "Well  may  his  house  make  sixteen  clothiers' 
houses,  whose  wealth  would  amount  to  six  hundred  of  their 
estates.  He  built  the  church  of  Newbury  from  pulpit 
westward  to  the  tower  inclusively,  and  died  about  1520. 
Some  of  his  name  and  kindred  of  great  wealth  still  remain." 
In  the  expedition  to  Flodden  Field  against  James,  King 
of  Scotland,  he  marched  with  one  hundred  of  his  own  men, 
"as  well  armed  and  better  clothed  than  any,  to  show  that 
the  painful  to  use  their  hands  in  peace  could  be  valiant 
and  employ  their  arms  in  war." 

At  first  fabrics  were  a  by-product  of  agriculture  in 
England,  for  the  farm  homestead  was  the  seat  of  the  textile 
industry.  The  males  of  the  household  raised  the  flocks, 
while  the  females  spun  the  yarn  and  wove  the  fabrics; 
and  so  the  industry  throve  and  prospered  for  hundreds  of 
years,  giving  occupation  and  income  to  thousands  of  the 
agricultural  class.  As  time  went  on,  the  farmers  of  certain 
sections,  particularly  about  Bury,  Oldham,  Preston,  Man- 
chester, and  Chester,  became  the  more  expert  in  the  art, 
and  soon  the  beginning  of  the  factory  system  appears  in  a 
separation  of  spinning  from  weaving,  the  two  originally 
being  done  by  one  person.  And  little  by  little  there  came 
a  further  differentiation  of  work  in  the  process  not  only  of 
manufacturing,  but  also  of  merchandising  the  product,  and 
this  has  left  its  trace  in  many  English  names. 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  63 


ENGLISH   NAMES   DERIVED   FROM   INDUSTRY 

To  the  old  occupation  go  back  many  names  which  origi- 
nally indicated  the  part  their  bearer  performed  in  the  tex- 
tile industry.  Thus  the  name  of  Shepard,  which  with 
variations  of  spelling  is  a  common  one,  may  be  traced  to 
the  shepherd  or  sheepherd,  who  cared  for  the  flocks,  and 
the  names  Shearer,  Sheerman,  Shurman,  and  the  like,  came 
from  the  man  who  sheared  or  clipped  the  sheep. 

So  also  the  names  Stapler,  Wool,  Wooler,  Woolman,  or 
Wollsey  were  derived  from  the  merchant  to  whom  the  wool 
was  sold;  and  the  carrying  it  from  place  to  place  originated 
those  of  Carter,  Packer,  or  Carrier.  The  wool  was  turned 
over  to  Carders  and  Combers,  Kempers,  or  Kemsters,  and 
passed  next  to  Spinners,  and  then  to  Weavers,  Weevers, 
Webbs,  Webbers,  or  Websters.  The  nap  was  brought  out 
by  "teasing,"  by  the  Teasers,  Tosers,  Teaslers,  or  Taylors, 
and  then  dyed  by  the  Dyer,  Litter,  or  Lister. 

The  fulling  or  shrinking  process  was  done  by  the  Fullers, 
Fullertons,  Fullersons,  or  Fullmans,  assisted  by  the  Walkers, 
who  trod  it  with  their  feet,  while  it  was  beaten  with  bats 
and  mallets  by  the  Beaters,  Beatermans,  Bates,  Batteman. 
In  time  the  special  work  in  which  the  workmen  showed 
special  skill  gave  them  the  names  by  which  they  and  their 
descendants  have  been  known. 


CAUSES   OF  THE   CONCENTRATION   IN  LANCASTER 

The  unpleasant  climatic  conditions  of  Manchester  and 
the  surrounding  towns  near  the  Irish  Sea,  affording  the  right 
degree  of  humidity  for  the  best  linen  and  cotton  manu- 
facture, made  the  section  ideal  for  textile  work  and  not  so 
suitable  for  agriculture  or  outdoor  work.  So  it  was  that 
the  farmers  thereabouts  early  turned  their  attention  to 
spinning  and  weaving  cotton. 

As  early  as  1641  the  people  of  Manchester  were  "in  the 


64  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

habit  of  buying  linen  yarn  from  the  Irish,  and,  after  weaving 
it,  returning  it  for  sale  in  a  finished  state.  They  also  bought 
cotton-wool  that  came  from  Smyrna  to  work  into  fustians 
and  dimities."  These  fustians,  with  tuckings,  tapes,  etc., 
made  the  staple  trade  of  Manchester  in  the  early  part  of 
the  seventeenth  century. 

An  eye-witness,  writing  about  1770,  says:  "The  land  in 
our  township  [Mellor]  was  occupied  by  between  fifty  and 
sixty  farmers,  and  out  of  those  fifty  or  sixty  there  were 
only  six  or  seven  who  raised  their  rent  directly  from  the 
produce  of  their  farms.  All  the  rest  got  their  rent  partly 
in  some  branch  of  trade,  such  as  cotton  or  linen  or  spinning 
and  weaving  woolen." 


SEPARATION  OF  AGRICULTURE  AND   SPINNING  AND  WEAVING 

At  this  period  many  of  the  farmers  of  Lancashire  were 
engaged  wholly  in  spinning  and  weaving,  save  during  the 
few  weeks  of  harvest.  And  soon  "there  were  a  number 
of  master  [cotton-linen,  fustian]  manufacturers,  as  well 
as  many  weavers  who  worked  for  manufacturers  and  at 
the  same  time  were  holders  of  land  or  farmers." 

A  few  cottagers  held  no  land  and  worked  for  manu- 
facturers, but  many  held  small  pieces  of  land  and  worked 
for  themselves.  The  situation  had  thus  assumed  a  phase 
in  which  farming  had  become  wholly  subordinate  to  the 
textile  industry,  although  most  of  the  weavers  occupied 
small  parcels  of  land  for  which  they  were  able  to  pay  high 
rents  by  combining  a  little  farming  with  much  spinning 
and  weaving. 

This  relation  between  agriculture  and  the  textile  industry 
continued  in  a  lessening  degree  until  well  into  the  first 
quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century.  From  the  beginning 
of  the  last  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  growth  of 
the  factory  system  became  more  and  more  pronounced. 
The  development  first  showed  itself  in  a  severance  of  the 


BOWING  OF  COTTON,   AS  PRACTISED  IN   INDIA   AND  CHINA 


A   HINDU   WOMAN   SPINNING  COTTON   YARN   ON   THE  PRIMITIVE 
WHEEL  OF  INDIA 


(Both  illustrations  from  an  old  print) 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  65 

agricultural  connection  through  the  concentration  of  the 
weavers  in  hamlets  and  towns,  and  this  was  brought  about 
by  the  higher  skill  required  by  the  finer  fabrics  which  were 
more  and  more  in  demand.  As  early  as  1727  Daniel  Defoe 
could  write  of  Manchester,  "The  grand  manufacture  which 
has  so  much  raised  the  town  is  that  of  cotton  in  all  its 
branches." 

It  was  soon  learned  that  the  rough  work  of  farming 
made  the  hands  of  the  weaver  less  skilful,  and  the  weaver 
found  also  the  needed  ability  required  close  application, 
and  that  much  could  be  gained  from  the  study  of  the  work 
of  other  weavers. 

As  the  looms  became  more  complicated  with  the  im- 
provements that  inventive  genius  added,  considerable 
mechanical  work  was  often  called  for,  and  this  necessitated 
being  near  a  mechanic.  Then,  too,  as  the  spinners  and 
weavers  began  clustering  together,  the  buyers  of  fabrics 
turned  to  these  centres  for  their  goods,  so  that  it  became 
easier  to  find  a  market  for  one's  goods  when  one  was  part 
of  a  community  of  weavers  than  when  one  lived  at  a  dis- 
tance. 

The  fact  that  since  the  introduction  of  the  industry  in 
England  a  portion  of  the  artisans  did  nothing  but  spin  and 
weave,  and  were  early  associated  in  guilds,  doubtless  had 
a  decided  influence  in  bringing  about  a  separation  of  the 
two  occupations, — the  textile  industry  and  farming. 


EARLY  RELATIONSHIP  OF  EMPLOYER  AND  EMPLOYEE 

How  early  the  relationship  of  employer  and  employee 
sprang  up  it  is  impossible  to  determine,  but  there  is  little 
doubt  that  to  a  slight  degree  it  was  in  existence  from  the 
earliest  days. 

The  old  apprenticeship  system,  too,  had  its  place  in  fixing 
the  relations  between  employer  and  employee.  The  ap- 
prentice generally  lived  with  his  employer,  and  thus  came 


66  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

in  closest  contact  not  only  with  his  mode  of  life,  but  his 
method  of  business  management.  And  thus,  when  the  ap- 
prentice set  up  for  himself,  he  perpetuated  the  system  of 
business  under  which  he  was  trained. 

Contemporaneous  with  the  growth  of  the  factory  system 
was  the  greater  development  of  the  relation  of  employer 
and  employee.  While  there  always  was  a  time  when  em- 
ployer and  employee  existed,  from  the  first  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century  the  system  grew  rapidly,  and  was  given 
additional  impetus  by  the  increased  demand  for  better 
fabrics  and  the  growing  costliness  of  the  complicated  ma- 
chinery which  was  invented. 

By  1740  spinning  was  being  done  largely  by  separate 
artisans,  who  were  rapidly  constituting  a  distinct  class  from 
the  weavers ;  and  both  classes  were  furnishing  many  journey- 
men, who  were  working  in  small  shops  for  others  or  were 
being  paid  by  the  piece  for  what  they  made  from  material 
supplied  by  Manchester  merchants.  Still  others  brought 
their  own  raw  material,  and  sold  the  finished  products 
to  the  growing  merchant  class.  This  class  of  small  jour- 
neymen manufacturers  was  eventually  driven  out,  as  the 
growth  of  the  industry  required  more  and  more  capital, 
and  the  consumer  and  producer  were  brought  more  closely 
together  by  organizations  of  capital.  At  first  most  weavers 
constructed  and  owned  their  looms.  Later  many  hired 
them,  and  in  some  places  lodgings  were  let  with  a  loom, 
just  as  to-day  lodgings  are  let  with  a  piano. 

As  merchants  began  to  call  for  different  kinds  of  fabrics, 
it  became  the  custom  for  the  masters  to  provide  reeds  that 
ranged  in  fineness  with  the  fineness  of  the  loom,  and  also 
to  furnish  the  other  changeable  parts.  Another  step  toward 
the  control  of  the  industry  by  the  holders  of  capital  or  the 
merchant  class  was  the  supplying  of  the  warp  by  the  Man- 
chester merchants.  The  lack  at  first  of  the  water  frame 
precluded  the  spinning  of  the  warp  of  cotton  of  sufficient 
strength  for  weaving,  and  warps  were  therefore  of  either 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  67 

linen  or  wool  and  made  by  hand  either  in  the  neighborhood 
or  were  imported  from  Germany,  Ireland,  or  Scotland. 
Until  warping  mills  were  introduced,  the  weaver  prepared 
the  warp  for  the  loom;  but,  after  warping  mills  sprang  up, 
the  merchants  supplied  them  ready  for  the  loom.  This 
specialization  of  work  was  largely  supported  by  the  mer- 
chants, who  also  could  judge  what  warps  would  be  re- 
quired by  their  fabrics,  and  were  better  able  to  judge  the 
amount  of  goods  needed.  This  change,  from  that  of  the 
weaver  supplying  or  buying  his  own  warp  to  that  of  the 
merchant  furnishing  the  warp  to  the  weaver  making  his 
cloth,  took  place  about  1740,  and  led  to  the  firm  establish- 
ment of  warping  mills,  which,  however,  existed  in  limited 
numbers  during  the  seventeenth  century. 

Concerning  the  weft,  it  was  found  best  by  the  merchants 
to  give  the  weaver  full  responsibility  for  his  yarn.  The 
cotton  wool  was  therefore  furnished,  and  women  and  chil- 
dren cleaned,  carded,  and  spun  the  cotton  in  their  homes. 
Dealers  who  attempted  to  supply  the  yarn  ready  for  the 
weft  found  that  the  spinners  could  hide  defects  which  often 
gave  the  weavers  excuse  for  the  production  of  inferior 
goods.  And  frequently  weavers  placed  the  responsibility 
for  poor  work  upon  defects  they  claimed  existed  in  the  weft. 

"Willowing"  was  the  name  given  the  cleaning  process, 
and  it  was  so  called  because  the  cotton  spread  on  a  light 
hammock  of  cords,  called  the  bowstring,  was  beaten  with 
willow  switches.  The  process  dated  back  to  prehistoric 
times.  Cotton  for  fine  spinning  was  carefully  washed,  and 
was  always  soaked  with  water  and  dried  so  that  the  fibres 
would  cling  together. 

As  the  weaving  became  more  complicated  and  arduous, 
men  early  took  the  place  of  women,  who  cast  the  shuttle 
from  hand  to  hand,  as  was  done  from  remote  time.  In  the 
making  of  broadcloths  two  weavers  were  required,  as  the 
distance  was  greater  than  one  man  could  stretch. 

All  of  these  factors  were  working  toward  the  creation  of 


68  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

the  factory  system  as  now  understood.  But  the  greatest 
factor  was  the  invention  of  the  steam-engine,  of  the  fly 
shuttle,  the  spinning  jenny,  the  mule,  and  the  power  loom, 
all  of  which  made  possible  the  production  of  fabrics  on  a 
scale  which  necessitated  many  artisans  under  one  direction 
and  the  employment  of  larger  capital  than  weavers  could 
supply. 

INVENTIONS  AND  THE  FACTORY  SYSTEM 

The  era  of  invention  brought  about  a  more  rapid  devel- 
opment of  the  factory  system  as  well  as  greatly  increased 
concentration  of  the  industry  in  the  centres  where  it  was 
already  established. 

The  father  of  John  Kay,  who  invented  the  fly  shuttle, 
had  a  woolen  manufactory  at  Colchester  early  in  1700, 
and  already  manufacturing  in  mills  was  in  process  in  other 
parts  of  England.  A  great  impetus  was  given  the  movement 
by  Richard  Arkwright,  who  has  been  called  the  father  of 
the  factory  system.  It  was  to  his  executive  and  financial 
ability,  quite  as  much  as  to  the  inventive  genius  he  dis- 
played in  the  improvement  of  the  spinning  frame,  that  this 
was  due.  The  first  practical  cotton  mill  in  the  world  was 
erected  by  him  in  1769  at  Nottingham  and  was  turned  by 
horses.  One  had  already  been  built  in  1764  by  James 
Hargreaves,  who  invented  the  spinning  jenny,  but  it  was 
not  practical. 

Water  power  was  already  beginning  to  supply  the  power 
to  the  few  mills  in  existence,  and  in  1771  Arkwright  erected 
a  new  mill  at  Cromford,  which  was  turned  by  the  river 
Derwent,  and  was  supplied  with  a  cylinder  card  machine 
and  a  spinning  frame,  which  could  roll  as  well  as  spin,  and 
which  was  called  a  water  frame  from  the  power  that  sup- 
plied it. 

The  machines  thus  grouped  at  Cromford  made  it  possible 
for  the  first  time  to  accomplish  the  whole  operation  of  cotton 
spinning  in  one  mill,  the  first  machine  receiving  the  cotton 


•  .    "". 


DOMESTIC   FLAX  WHEEL 

An  old  German  invention,  commonly  called  the  Saxony,  or  Leipzig,  wheel. 
In  some  instances  two  spindles  were  attached  to  the  same  wheel,  enabling 
the  spinner  to  form  a  thread  with  each  hand. 


HINDU   SPINNING    AND   WEAVING 

(Both  illustrations  from  old  prints) 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  69 

wool  as  it  came  from  the  pod,  and  the  last  winding  the 
cotton,  twisted  in  firm  hard  yarn  upon  the  bobbins.  The 
labor  used  was  largely  juvenile,  as  it  was  found  that  chil- 
dren were  more  dexterous  in  tying  the  broken  ends  at  the 
rollers,  their  small  and  sensitive  fingers  being  more  adapted 
for  the  work. 

Arkwright's  invention,  together  with  Crompton's,  gave 
the  cotton  industry  a  great  boom,  and  factories  sprang 
up  everywhere  in  Lancashire,  changing  the  rural  aspect 
of  the  land  into  a  collection  of  tall  chimneys,  brick  buildings, 
and  city  streets.  Everywhere  operatives  became  merely 
the  employees  of  the  masters  of  capital. 

Cartwright's  invention  of  the  power  loom  in  1785-86 
further  accelerated  the  spread  of  the  factory  system,  as 
it  brought  spinning  and  weaving  again  under  one  roof. 

Then  there  was  also  the  application  for  the  first  time  in 
1785  of  Watt's  steam-engine  to  cotton  manufacturing.  It 
is  interesting  to  note  here  that  the  first  electric-driven 
spinning  mule  in  Lancashire  was  that  of  the  Acme  Spinning 
Company's  at  Pendlebury,  and  was  started  1895.  Power 
was  supplied  from  Outwood,  five  miles  distant.  Of  the 
2,000,000  horse-power  now  used  in  the  textile  mills  of  the 
United  States,  500,000  is  produced  by  electricity. 


INFLUENCE  OF  FACTORY  ON  ENGLISH  SOCIAL  LIFE 

No  less  than  one  hundred  and  forty-three  water  mills  in 
1788  were  making  cotton  in  Lancashire,  Derbyshire,  Notting- 
ham, Yorkshire,  Cheshire,  Staffordshire,  and  were  rapidly  in- 
creasing. The  adjustment  of  the  factory  system  to  English 
life  during  the  last  years  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  the 
first  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  led  to  much  trouble,  in 
which  property  was  destroyed  and  riots  occurred.  In  fact, 
Carlyle  in  his  essay  on  Chartism  depicts  the  miseries  that 
involved  the  handicraft  workers  when  machinery  came  into 
use.  Thousands  were  thrown  out  of  employment  in  the 


70  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

crowded  textile  centres,  and  much  suffering  occurred,  which 
led  to  the  smashing  of  machines  and  the  wrecking  of  mills, 
and  it  was  some  years  before  the  factory  system  became  a 
smooth  part  of  the  mechanism  of  England's  industrial  life. 

The  influence  of  the  factory  on  social  conditions  in  Eng- 
land is  admirably  described  in  Lincoln's  monograph  on  "The 
Factory."  At  first  in  England  the  factory  towns  were  sinks 
of  unhealthy  conditions.  Not  alone  was  refuse  allowed  to 
accumulate  on  the  streets,  but  conveniences  of  the  most 
primitive  kind  were  lacking.  A  workingman's  family  lived 
mainly  upon  tea,  bread,  and  boiled  potatoes,  to  which  occa- 
sionally meat  of  some  kind  was  added.  The  members  of 
a  family  ate  from  a  common  dish,  more  like  animals  than 
human  beings.  They  were  packed  in  unsanitary  homes 
where  domestic  comfort  was  a  stranger,  and  squalor  and 
debauchery  were  common.  Few  over  forty  years  old  were 
fit  for  work,  and  it  was  only  when  Parliament  took  cogni- 
zance of  the  conditions  and  public  opinion  began  to  assert 
an  influence  that  the  terrible  concomitants  of  the  factory 
were  removed. 

It  had  this  effect  upon  England.  Finding  the  people 
divided  primarily  into  two  classes,  dependants,  or  serfs,  and 
the  upper  classes,  it  created  from  the  dependent  class  the 
great  middle  class.  In  many  cases,  tradesmen  and  manu- 
facturers were  lifted  into  the  nobility  and  an  interest  cre- 
ated in  political  affairs  on  the  part  of  the  working  classes 
that  did  not  exist  before.  It  found  England  a  nation  of 
agriculturists  and  made  it  an  empire  of  world  traders. 

By  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  factory 
system  under  the  control  of  capital  was  firmly  established, 
and  here  we  shall  leave  it  and  consider  briefly  the  era  of 
invention  which  so  greatly  developed  the  textile  industry 
during  the  eighteenth  and  early  part  of  the  nineteenth 
centuries. 


CHAPTER  IV 

ERA  OF  INVENTION 

ERA  OF  INVENTION EARLY  IMPROVEMENTS  IN  TEXTILE  MACHINERY 

JOHN  KAY PAUL  AND  WYATT JAMES  HARGREAVES RICHARD 

ARKWRIGHT SAMUEL      CROMPTON EDMUND      CARTWRIGHT IN- 
VENTIONS    OF     KNITTING     MACHINES — IPSWICH     MILLS — JOSEPH 

MARIE    CHARLES    JACQUARD MACHINES    FOR    SPINNING     FLAX 

JAMES     WATT ELI    WHITNEY IMPROVEMENTS    OF    THE    BASIC 

MACHINES,    AND    FURTHER    INVENTIONS BLEACHING DYEING 

PRINTING MERCERIZING   PROCESS 

The  use  of  the  distaff  and  spindle  was  the  first  step 
in  the  invention  of  textile  machinery,  and  began  at  so 
very  remote  a  time  it  is  impossible  to  fix  it.  Earliest 
records  on  stone,  brick,  papyrus,  of  the  Assyrians,  Baby- 
lonians, and  Egyptians,  picture  the  use  of  the  rock,  or 
distaff,  and  the  spindle,  and  Solomon,  Homer,  and  Herodotus 
frequently  allude  to  it.  The  distaff  is  said  to  have  been 
introduced  into  England  by  Anthony  Bonvoise,  an  Italian, 
during  the  twentieth  year  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  and  then 
began  the  making  of  Devonshire  kerseys  and  Coxal  cloths. 

The  spindle,  as  it  has  been  from  tune  immemorial,  was 
a  round  stick  of  wood  about  a  foot  long,  which  tapered  at 
each  end.  A  ring  of  stone  or  clay,  or  sometimes  potato, 
girded  the  upper  part  of  it  to  give  it  steadiness  and  mo- 
mentum when  it  revolved.  At  the  extreme  upper  end  there 
was  a  notch,  or  slit,  into  which  the  yarn  was  caught.  The 
distaff,  or  rock,  was  a  longer,  stouter  stick,  around  one  end 
of  which,  in  a  loose  ball,  the  material  to  be  spun  was  wound. 

The  spinner  either  fixed  the  other  end  of  the  rock  in  her 
girdle  or  carried  it  under  her  left  arm,  so  that  the  coil  of 
material  was  in  a  convenient  position  to  draw  out  to  form 


72  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

the  yarn.  The  end  of  the  yarn,  after  being  prepared,  was 
inserted  in  the  notch,  and  the  spinner  set  the  spindle  in 
motion  by  quickly  rolling  it  with  the  right  hand  against  the 
right  leg,  and  thus  throwing  it  out,  spinning  in  the  air. 
Meanwhile  the  spinner  drew  from  the  rock  with  the  left 
hand  an  additional  supply  of  fibre,  which  was  formed  by 
the  right  hand  into  a  uniform  and  equal  strand.  After 
the  yarn  was  sufficiently  twisted,  it  was  released  from  the 
notch  and  wound  around  the  lower  part  of  the  spindle,  and 
again  fixed  in  the  notch  at  the  point  insufficiently  twisted. 
Thus  the  rotating,  twisting,  and  drawing  operations  went 
on  until  the  spindle  was  full.  In  this  way,  spinning  was 
practised  in  prehistoric  and  ancient  times.  And  in  the 
self -same  way  it  is  to-day  done  in  some  remote  sections  of 
Scotland.  Yarns  of  greatest  fineness  and  strength  are 
still  spun  in  this  way. 

The  first  improvement  in  this  method  of  spinning  was 
the  construction  of  the  hand  wheel,  in  which  the  spindle, 
mounted  in  a  frame,  was  fixed  horizontally,  and  rotated 
by  a  band  passing  around  a  large  wheel  set  in  the  frame- 
work. Such  a  wheel  has  been  used  from  prehistoric  times 
in  the  East,  but  was  not  introduced  into  Europe  until  about 
the  fourteenth  century. 

The  earliest  manuscript  that  mentions  the  spinning  wheel 
was  written  in  the  fourteenth  century,  and  is  in  the  British 
Museum.  This  wheel  was  evidently  one  at  which  a  woman 
stood,  for  that  which  came  into  general  use  is  said  to  have 
been  invented  in  1533  by  a  citizen  of  Brunswick,  and  was 
the  first  wheel  at  which  a  woman  could  sit.  Other  improve- 
ments enabling  one  to  spin  with  a  treadle  movement,  and 
thus  allowing  the  spinner  to  work  with  both  hands  free, 
were  added  at  later  dates  that  cannot  be  fixed.  Thus 
came  into  use  the  spinning  wheel  as  our  forbears  used  it 
in  the  homespun  industries  of  New  England  and  as  it  is 
still  used  in  the  isolated  rural  districts  of  Ireland,  Scotland, 
and  Europe. 


HINDU   WEAVER  AT  HIS  LOOM 

(From  an  old  woodcut) 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  73 

It  was  not  long  before  every  woman  in  England  spun, 
and  terms  of  the  industry  had  become  a  part  of  the  language. 
Thus  spear  side  and  distaff  side  of  the  house  became  the 
legal  terms  respectively  for  the  male  and  female  lines  of 
inheritance.  Spinster  was  and  is  still  the  English  term 
for  unmarried  women.  January  7  was  jocularly  called 
St.  Distaff's  Day,  or  Rock  Day,  and  signified  the  resumption 
of  spinning  after  the  rest  of  the  Christmas  holidays. 


EARLY   IMPROVEMENTS   IN   TEXTILE  MACHINERY 

To  Lewis  Paul,  John  Wyatt,  James  Hargreaves,  John 
Kay,  Richard  Arkwright,  James  Crompton,  and  Edmund 
Cartwright  the  textile  industry  owes  the  basic  inven- 
tions which  have  revolutionized  it.  It  is  impossible  to 
say  to  whom  the  greatest  credit  is  due,  for  there  is  much 
controversy  over  the  question  of  whose  inventive  work 
takes  priority, — whether  Paul  and  Wyatt  are  entitled  to 
more  credit  than  Kay,  Hargreaves,  or  Arkwright.  One 
thing  is  certain:  for  thousands  of  years  before  these  great, 
ingenious  Englishmen  set  their  minds  to  work  upon  the 
problem  of  increasing  the  efficiency  of  the  spinning  wheel 
and  loom  there  was  little  change  in  the  method  and  manner 
of  making  fabrics.  Both  spinning  and  weaving  were  sub- 
stantially the  same  as  those  practised  alike  by  the  savage, 
by  the  ancient  Chinese,  by  the  Egyptians  of  Pharaoh's 
time,  and  by  the  spinners  and  weavers  of  mediaeval  or 
early  modern  times;  and  the  output  was  limited  by  the 
amount  of  manual  labor  that  could  be  brought  to  it  and 
the  capacity  of  the  crude  spinning  wheel  and  equally  crude 
loom  upon  which  fabrics  were  fashioned. 

One  of  the  earliest  attempts  to  improve  the  loom  was 
made  in  1678  by  a  M.  de  Gennes,  a  Frenchman.  The  im- 
provement consisted  of  an  appliance  which,  like  mechani- 
cal hands,  shot  in  and  out  of  the  warp,  and  exchanged  the 
shuttle.  Another  invention  was  that  of  grinding  the 


74  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

• 

shuttle  through  the  warp  by  cog  wheels  working  at  each 
end  upon  teeth  affixed  to  the  upper  side  of  the  shuttle. 
It  was  known  as  Swivel's  loom,  and  is  described  in  1724 
as  working  twenty-four  laces  at  a  time  and  as  having  been 
stolen  from  the  Dutch,  from  which  it  took  its  other  name 
of  the  Dutch  loom.  A  factory  in  which  these  looms  were 
installed  in  1760  at  Manchester,  with  water  as  the  motive 
power,  failed  because  of  the  impracticability  of  the  in- 
vention. 

While  the  artisans  of  Continental  Europe  were  at  work 
upon  improvements  in  spinning  and  weaving,  the  English- 
men about  Manchester  were  by  no  means  idle,  and  to  Eng- 
land more  than  to  any  other  nation  are  due  the  basic  in- 
ventions which  have  revolutionized  the  whole  textile  in- 
dustry, changing  it  from  a  hand  occupation  of  meagre 
output  to  one  of  power  machinery  with  an  enormous  pro- 
duction. 

JOHN  KAY 

One  of  the  first  inventions  was  that  of  the  fly  shuttle, 
patented  May  26,  1733,  by  John  Kay,  an  English  machinist 
and  engineer.  Kay's  father  had  a  woolen  manufactory 
at  Colchester,  and  the  son,  who  was  born  in  1704  near  Bury, 
and  had  been  educated  abroad,  was  put,  while  still  a  youth, 
in  charge  of  the  mill. 

His  mechanical  bent  soon  showed  itself  in  the  various 
improvements  he  made  in  dressing,  batting,  and  carding 
machinery,  in  the  development  of  the  Dutch  boy  and  the 
inkle  loom  in  the  mill.  By  inserting  dents  of  metal  instead 
of  cane  he  greatly  improved  the  reeds  of  the  loom,  thus 
making  them  more  durable  and  better  adapted  for  the 
weaving  of  finer  and  stronger  textures. 

The  first  patent,  a  new  machine  for  making,  twisting,  and 
carding  mohair  and  worsted  and  for  twining  and  dressing 
thread,  was  taken  out  in  1730,  when  he  was  but  twenty-six. 
The  fly  shuttle,  so  called  because  of  the  speed  with  which 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  75 

it  could  be  operated,  greatly  improved  the  quality  of  the 
cloth,  lightened  the  labor,  and  yet  more  than  doubled  the 
output. 

By  the  old  method  the  shuttle  was  cast  through  the  warp 
from  side  to  side  by  one  hand,  caught  by  the  other,  and  the 
easy  weft  thread  was  driven  home  by  the  layer  which  was 
operated  by  the  hand  that  had  just  cast  the  shuttle.  In 
making  broadcloth  with  the  old  loom,  which  had  been  in 
use  from  time  immemorial  without  improvement,  a  weaver 
stood  on  each  side  of  the  warp. 

Kay's  improvements  involved  the  invention  of  the  race 
board,  which  he  fixed  to  the  layer  under  the  warp  by  a  shuttle 
box  at  each  end,  with  a  spindle  and  picker  on  each  box. 
A  cord  passed  from  each  picker  to  a  short  lever  in  the 
weaver's  right  hand.  It  compassed  great  improvements 
in  the  shuttle. 

One  hand  could  thus  be  used  to  throw  the  shuttle  while 
the  other  drove  home  the  weft.  The  weaver  sat  in  the 
middle  of  the  loom,  and  pulled  at  pleasure  the  small  cord 
which  cast  the  shuttle  from  side  to  side.  As  spinning 
was  still  done  on  the  hand  wheel,  the  demands  for  the 
increased  output  of  the  loom  soon  outran  the  product 
of  the  thread.  This  more  than  anything  else  set  the  spin- 
ners to  work  upon  improving  the  methods  of  spinning,  and 
yet  it  was  almost  forty  years  before  machine  spinning  was 
perfected. 

The  Yorkshire  clothiers  were  the  first  to  adopt  the  fly 
shuttle.  To  avoid  paying  for  its  use,  they  formed  an 
association  called  "The  Shuttle  Club,"  to  cover  each 
other's  costs,  should  they  be  prosecuted.  Although  Kay's 
suits  against  these  infringements  were  all  decided  in  his 
favor,  he  was  almost  bankrupted  by  the  expense  to  which 
he  was  put.  So  much  opposition  did  the  weavers  display 
to  the  introduction  of  the  shuttle  that  Kay  was  forced  to 
leave  Colchester  and  take  up  his  residence  in  Leeds.  But 
in  Leeds  the  same  opposition  was  shown,  and  he  finally 


76  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

consigned  the  spinning  and  carding  machines  he  had  in- 
vented to  the  poorhouse,  where  the  inmates  operated 
them.  A  mob  broke  into  Kay's  quarters,  demolished 
everything  they  could  find,  and  would  have  killed  Kay, 
had  not  two  friends  smuggled  him  out,  concealed  in  a  sheet. 
His  model  of  the  spinning  machine  was  saved  by  a  Mr. 
Earnshaw,  who  subsequently  destroyed  it  as  "a  very 
dangerous  piece  of  furniture." 

Thoroughly  discouraged  with  his  experience  in  England, 
Kay  went  to  France,  and  there  resumed  making  the  ma- 
chines which  he  had  smuggled  out  of  England.  In  1764 
his  son  Rdbert  wrote  to  the  London  Society  of  Arts  and 
Manufactures,  asking  a  premium  for  his  father  because 
of  the  father's  invention  of  the  fly  shuttle. 

"I  have  a  great  many  more  inventions  than  what  I 
have  given,"  Kay  himself  wrote,  "and  the  reason  that 
I  have  not  put  them  forward  is  the  bad  treatment  which 
I  had  from  woolen  and  cotton  factories  in  different  parts 
of  England  many  years  ago.  And  then  I  applied  to  Parlia- 
ment, and  they  would  not  assist  me  in  my  affairs,  which 
obliged  me  to  go  abroad  to  get  money  to  pay  my  debts 
and  support  my  family." 

With  the  hope  of  securing  a  reward  from  the  govern- 
ment, he  later  returned  to  England,  but,  failing  in  his  efforts, 
he  again  took  up  his  residence  in  France,  where  he  died 
in  obscurity  and  actual  want.  His  inventions  with  modi- 
fications are,  however,  in  use  to  this  day. 

One  of  the  improvements  was  made  by  his  son  Robert, 
who  worked  out  the  drop-box  in  1760,  by  which  many 
different  kinds  of  weft  could  be  worked  into  the  same 
fabric,  and  figured  goods  thus  be  produced. 

In  fact,  a  strain  of  inventive  genius  seems  to  have  run 
through  the  Kay  family,  for  Robert,  too,  was  constantly 
working  upon  textile  inventions;  and  some  of  his  inven- 
tions, in  modified  form,  are  in  use  to-day. 


J  O  H  K       K  AY  OF         BURY 

A        LANCASHIRE         WORTHY 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  77 


PAUL  AND   WYATT 

Lewis  Paul  and  John  Wyatt,  other  early  inventors  about 
whom  little  is  known,  originated  the  principle  of  spinning 
by  rollers,  and  took  out  their  first  patents  June  24,  1738. 
The  patent  is  thus  described:  "The  wool  or  cotton  being 
prepared,  one  end  of  the  roving  is  put  between  a  pair  of 
rollers,  which  by  their  motion  draw  in  the  cotton  to  be 
spun,  and  a  suction  of  other  rollers  moving  proportionately 
faster  than  the  first  draws  the  roving  into  any  degree  of 
fineness  which  may  be  required."  Although  two  cotton 
mills,  one  at  Birmingham  and  the  other  on  a  larger  scale 
at  Northampton,  were  built  in  1741,  to  operate  under  the 
patent,  neither  was  successful.  Lewis  Paul  took  out  a 
patent  on  a  carding  machine  Aug.  30,  1748,  and  on  June 
29,  1758,  he  patented  his  spinning  machinery. 


JAMES  HARGREAVES 

The  first  practical  improvement  in  spinning  was  the 
Invention  of  the  spinning  jenny  by  James  Hargreaves,  a 
poor  and  ignorant  spinner  and  weaver,  who  is  sometimes 
described  as  a  carpenter,  because  he  probably  combined 
the  latter  trade  with  that  of  his  textile  work.  Very  little 
is  known  of  his  early  life.  He  was  a  weaver,  living  at 
Sandhill,  near  Blackburn,  England,  in  1760,  and  had  in- 
vented a  carding  machine.  A  contemporary  describes  him 
as  a  "broad-set  man,  about  five  feet  ten."  His  ingenuity 
seems  to  have  attracted  the  notice  of  the  Peel  family,  for 
in  1760  he  aided  Robert  Peel,  of  Blackburn,  founder  of  the 
family,  to  make  a  carding  machine  based  on  one  that  had 
been  worked  out  by  Lewis  Paul;  but  it  was  not  a  success. 

Hargreaves  conceived  of  his  invention  by  seeing  a  one- 
thread  spinning  wheel,  which  his  small  child  had  accidentally 
overturned,  continue  to  revolve  when  the  spindle  was  thrown 
into  an  upright  position,  and  the  thought  came  to  him 


78  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

that  if  a  number  of  spindles  were  placed  upright,  side  by 
side,  a  number  of  threads  might  be  spun  at  one  time.  He 
set  to  work  upon  the  idea,  and  in  three  years,  June  22, 
1770,  patented  his  spinning  wheel,  which  he  named  after 
his  daughter  (probably  the  child  that  had  upset  the  original 
wheel),  a  spinning  jenny,  and  so  the  invention  has  con- 
tinued to  be  known.  The  number  of  spindles  was  origi- 
nally eight,  but  rose  to  twenty  or  thirty,  and  eventually 
to  as  many  as  one  hundred  and  twenty. 

Owing  to  the  awkward  position  that  the  machine  re- 
quired of  the  operator,  children  could  more  readily  work 
it,  and  children,  therefore,  were  thus  early  set  to  work  at 
textile  machines.  As  the  spinning  jenny  did  not  make 
thread  strong  enough  for  the  warp,  and  the  roving  still 
had  to  be  spun  in  the  old  way,  the  use  of  the  invention 
was  restricted. 

RICHARD   ARKWRIGHT 

It  has  long  been  a  question  of  dispute  to  what  extent 
Richard  Arkwright  used  the  ideas  of  Thomas  High  in  the 
working  out  of  the  next  step  in  spinning  machinery, — 
the  perfection  of  a  practical  roller  spinner.  In  the  suits 
that  were  brought  by  Arkwright  to  establish  his  patents, 
John  Kay,  the  clock  maker  of  Warrenton,  who  assisted 
Arkwright  in  the  construction  of  his  machinery,  declared 
that  he  told  Arkwright  of  the  invention  of  roller  spinning 
by  Thomas  High,  and  that  Arkwright  knew  of  High's 
work  while  he  was  at  work  upon  his  inventions. 

However  this  may  be,  to  Richard  Arkwright,  more 
than  perhaps  to  any  other  Englishman,  the  development 
of  the  textile  industry  about  Manchester  is  due,  and  to 
his  undoubted  mechanical  genius  must  be  attributed  the 
completion  in  practical  shape  of  roller  spinning  and  other 
processes  of  the  textile  industry.  He  found  the  industry 
largely  decentralized.  His  financial  and  executive  ability, 
as  well  as  his  mechanical  bent,  gave  the  textile  industry 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  79 

in  England  such  an  impetus  that  the  rest  of  the  world  has 
had  quite  a  task  to  overtake  it. 

To  him  also  belongs  the  unusual  distinction,  not  only 
of  revolutionizing  an  industry,  but  of  compassing  the  social 
rise  from  a  barber's  chair  to  knighthood.  It  was  not 
until  his  perfection  of  the  spinning  frame  that  warp  threads 
of  cotton  could  be  made  strong  enough  to  meet  the  neces- 
sary requirements. 

As  described  in  after-life  by  the  dyspeptic  Carlyle,  "He 
was  a  plain,  almost  gross,  bag-cheeked,  pot-bellied  Lan- 
cashire man,  with  an  air  of  painful  reflection,  yet  also  of 
copious,  free  digestion." 

Arkwright  was  one  of  thirteen  children,  born  in  Preston, 
Lancashire,  Dec.  23,  1732,  of  parents  so  poor  he  was 
early  forced  to  work,  and  thus  had  opportunity  for  no 
more  education  than  could  be  scantily  acquired  at  an  even- 
ing school.  Never  could  he  read  or  write  with  ease,  and, 
even  when  more  than  fifty,  he  stole  four  hours  daily  from 
the  scanty  allotment  for  sleep  in  order  to  learn  grammar 
and  spelling. 

He  was  apprenticed,  when  a  boy,  to  a  barber,  and  at 
the  end  of  his  apprenticeship  established  himself  at  Bolton. 
One  of  the  strange  tales  told  of  this  period  of  his  life  is  to 
the  effect  that,  while  in  Bolton,  he  occupied  a  cellar,  over 
the  entrance  to  which  he  put  this  sign:  "Come  to  the 
Subterranean  Barber.  He  shaves  for  a  Penny."  After 
the  other  barbers  reduced  their  prices  to  meet  the  com- 
petition, Arkwright  later  announced,  "A  Clean  Shave  for 
a  Half  Penny." 

Coming  into  the  possession  of  a  secret  chemical  process 
for  dyeing  the  hair,  Arkwright  travelled  through  the  coun- 
try, buying  hair,  which  he  dyed  and  sold  to  wig  makers 
at  larger  prices  than  others  could  obtain.  His  childhood 
at  Preston,  where  there  was  a  manufactory  of  linen  from 
yarn  spun  with  the  distaff  and  spindle,  had  probably  made 
him  somewhat  familiar  with  the  textile  industry,  and 


80  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

this  knowledge  was  increased  by  his  work  as  a  buyer  of 
hair  in  a  district  where  spinning  and  weaving  were  com- 
mon in  most  households. 

Although  Arkwright  was  not  a  practical  mechanic,  he 
had  mechanical  ability,  which  enabled  him  to  see  possi- 
bilities in  machines  and  to  direct  the  handiwork  of  others. 
As  early  as  1767  Arkwright  had  become  interested  in  tex- 
tile machinery,  for  he  then  employed  Kay,  the  Warrenton 
clock  maker,  "to  turn  him  some  brass  and  bend  him  some 
wires."  It  was  reported  that  he  was  trying  to  produce 
perpetual  motion.  Accounts  differ  as  to  what  first  set 
him  to  work  on  the  spinning  process. 

One  story  is  that  he  got  his  idea  of  roller  spinning  from 
seeing  a  bar  of  red-hot  iron  elongated  by  being  drawn 
between  two  pairs  of  rollers,  the  second  pair  moving  faster 
than  the  first.  Kay  says  that  Arkwright  requested  him 
to  make  a  model  of  the  machine  used  by  High.  This  may 
or  may  not  be  true,  but  one  thing  is  certain:  Arkwright 
made  practical  what  other  men  had  been  unable  to  do; 
and,  more  than  that,  he  was  able  to  put  the  machinery  to 
such  practical  use  that  it  changed  the  face  of  Lancashire 
and  the  textile  industry. 

Arkwright  had  no  means  of  financing  his  manufacturing, 
so  he  returned  to  Preston,  his  birthplace,  and  succeeded 
in  interesting  a  liquor  dealer  and  painter  named  Samuel 
Smalley.  Arkwright's  machine  was  set  up  in  the  parlor 
of  the  house  belonging  to  the  Free  Grammar  School,  and 
so  convinced  Mr.  Smalley  of  its  utility  that  Smalley  offered 
Arkwright  his  time  and  means  for  the  marketing  of  the 
machine. 

So  straitened,  however,  did  Arkwright's  financial  condi- 
tion become  during  his  stay  at  Preston  that,  when  the 
"Great  Election"  took  place,  his  suit  was  so  ragged  that 
another  was  given  him  to  vote  in.  He  and  Smalley 
not  having  the  means  necessary  to  perfect  the  invention, 
and  fearing  the  destruction  of  machines  in  Preston  by  mobs 


SIR       RICHARD       ARKWRIGHT 
x^~^X 

t 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  81 

of  workmen  similar  to  those  that  had  already  destroyed 
the  spinning  jennies  about  Blackburn,  Arkwright  removed 
his  machine  to  Nottingham,  and  interested  some  bankers 
named  Wright.  The  machines  not  being  perfected  as 
speedily  as  the  bankers  hoped,  they  withdrew,  and  Ark- 
wright sought  aid  from  Samuel  Weed,  of  Nottingham,  a 
partner  of  Jedediah  Strutt,  of  Derby,  who  already  had 
patented  the  stocking  frame.  Weed,  Strutt,  and  Arkwright 
formed  a  partnership,  and  on  July  3,  1769,  Arkwright  took 
out  the  first  patent. 

According  to  the  specifications  of  his  patent  he  says: 
"I  had  by  great  study  and  long  application  invented  a 
new  piece  of  machinery  never  before  found  out,  practised, 
or  used  for  the  making  of  weft  grown  from  cotton,  flax, 
wool,  etc.  That  part  of  the  roller  which  the  cotton  runs 
through  is  covered  with  wood,  the  top  roller  with  leather, 
and  the  bottom  one,  fluted,  etc.,  by  one  pair  of  rollers 
moving  quicker  than  the  other,  draws  it  finer  for  twisting 
which  is  performed  by  the  spindles,  four  in  number,  each 
twisting  one  of  the  four  threads  delivered  by  the  four  pairs 
of  rollers."  The  first  cotton  mill  in  the  world,  as  we  have 
seen,  was  erected  by  him  at  Nottingham  and  was  operated 
by  horses. 

Arkwright's  success  with  the  spinning  frame  spurred 
him  on  to  further  inventions,  and  the  new  mill,  which 
we  have  also  learned  was  built  in  1771  at  Cromford  and  run 
by  the  river  Derwent,  compassed  the  whole  operation 
of  cotton  spinning  under  one  roof,  and  in  this  mill  began 
the  employment  of  children  in  factories. 

As  it  was  found  difficult  to  market  the  excellent  yarn 
produced  by  the  mill,  a  stock  soon  accumulated,  and,  to 
use  up  the  accumulation,  Arkwright  began  in  1773  the 
weaving  of  calicoes,  erecting  for  that  purpose  at  Derby  the 
first  fire-proof  mill  ever  constructed,  and  fitting  it  up  with 
the  best  hand  looms  attainable,  the  power  loom  not  yet 
having  been  invented.  Further  patents  covering  the  whole 


82  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

spinning  process,  comprising  carding,  drawing,  and  roving 
machines,  were  taken  out  Dec.  16,  1775,  by  Arkwright; 
and  these,  together  with  the  water  frame,  as  Arkwright's 
roller  spinning  invention  was  termed  because  of  its  being 
operated  at  Cromford  by  water,  made  it  possible  for  the 
first  time  to  make  cotton  yarn  strong  enough  for  warp, 
and  thus  did  away  the  linen  yarn  generally  used  for  the 
purpose. 

In  the  mean  time  the  spinners  in  different  parts  of  Lan- 
cashire watched  with  considerable  anxiety  the  increased 
production  of  the  labor-saving  devices  which  they  thought 
threatened  their  livelihood,  and  finally,  in  1779,  stoned  a 
mill  that  Arkwright  had  built  in  Chorley,  and  smashed 
every  carding  and  spinning  machine  for  miles  about,  sparing 
only  spinning  jennies  of  twenty  spindles  or  less,  because 
they  could  be  worked  by  hand. 

Infringements  of  his  patents  sprang  up  on  all  sides,  but 
could  not  affect  his  prosperity,  for  his  capital  and  mills 
enabled  him  to  overcome  all  obstacles.  He  sued  nine  of 
his  competitors  for  infringements  in  1781,  and  at  the  trial 
of  these  suits  the  principal  defendant  produced  as  witnesses 
Thomas  High  and  Kay  to  combat  Arkwright's  claims 
to  his  patent  rights,  and  the  suits  resulted  in  1785  in  the 
annulment  of  the  patents. 

This  lowered  the  bars  to  the  industry,  and  the  enormous 
profits  brought  unprecedented  influx  of  capital  to  the 
whole  trade.  It  had  little  effect,  however,  upon  the  pros- 
perity of  Arkwright,  because  the  number  of  his  mills  and 
the  amount  of  his  capital  now  enabled  him  to  meet  all 
the  competition.  He  had  the  greatest  confidence  in  his 
own  machinery  and  ability,  and  made  light  even  of  ques- 
tions of  taxation,  remarking  that  his  machines  would  enable 
him  to  pay  the  national  debt. 

His  improvements  in  the  textile  industry  attracted  the 
favorable  comment  of  the  king,  and  in  1786,  on  the  oc- 
casion of  his  presenting  an  address  as  the  sheriff  of  his 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  83 

county,  congratulating  the  king  on  his  escape  from  the 
knife  of  Margaret  Nicholson,  he  was  knighted.  His  in- 
dustry was  prodigious.  Often  he  worked  from  five  in  the 
morning  till  nine  at  night,  and,  to  prevent  the  wasting  of 
time,  he  generally  travelled  at  rapid  speed  with  four  horses 
to  his  coach.  He  died  at  Cromford,  Aug.  3,  1792,  leav- 
ing a  fortune  of  almost  two  million  dollars  and  an  incom- 
pleted  castle  at  Willersby,  England. 


SAMUEL  CROMPTON 

The  early  inventors  had  made  practical  the  spinning  at 
one  time  of  a  number  of  threads  sufficiently  strong,  how- 
ever, only  for  the  weft.  Arkwright  worked  out  the  water 
frame  so  that  a  coarse  warp  thread  could  be  spun.  It  re- 
mained for  Samuel  Crompton  to  further  perfect  the  spin- 
ning process  by  combining  the  Hargreaves  spinning  jenny 
and  Arkwright's  water  frame  in  the  machine  called  at 
first  "the  muslin  wheel,"  then  the  "Hall-in-the-Wood 
wheel,"  and  finally  "the  mule,"  because  it  was  a  "cross" 
between  the  spinning  jenny  and  Arkwright's  spinning  frame. 
Until  the  invention  of  this  machine,  muslins  were  im- 
ported from  India  because  Europe  could  not  make  yarn 
fine  enough;  but  the  muslin  wheel,  or  mule,  for  the  first 
time  made  it  possible  to  spin  yarn  equal  in  fineness  to 
the  production  of  Hindu  spinners. 

Crompton,  who  was  born  Dec.  3,  1753,  at  Firwood, 
near  Bolton,  came  of  a  family  which,  like  others  of  Lan- 
cashire, farmed,  carded,  spun,  and  wove.  The  eccen- 
tricities of  the  family  cropped  out  to  a  lesser  degree  in  the 
characteristics  of  Crompton. 

The  family  soon  after  his  birth  took  up  their  residence 
in  the  portion  of  an  ancient  mansion  in  the  woods  near 
Bolton,  called  "Hall-in-the-Wood,"  and  soon  after  the 
father  died,  leaving  the  son  to  be  brought  up  by  the  widow 
and  her  peculiar  brother-in-law,  Alexander  Crompton. 


84  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

Crompton's  mother  was  wont  to  beat  him,  not  for  any  par- 
ticular fault,  as  she  told  him,  "but  because  she  loved  him 
so."  When  a  young  child,  she  set  him  to  work  trampling 
the  dirt  out  of  the  washed  cotton,  and  when  he  was  six- 
teen, after  receiving  an  ordinary  education  at  Bolton  Day 
School,  she  set  him  to  spinning  at  home.  In  fact,  he  had 
begun  to  assist  his  mother  at  her  loom  as  soon  as  his  feet 
could  work  the  treadle.  She  was  noted  for  her  excellent 
honey  and  elderberry  wine,  but  she  was  hard  and  exacting, 
demanding  a  certain  amount  of  work  each  day  from  Sammy. 
His  uncle  was  so  lame  that  he  could  not  leave  the  room 
in  which  he  slept  at  Hall-in-the-Wood.  He,  too,  wove 
fustian  on  all  days  but  Sunday.  At  the  sound  of  the  church 
bells  he  would  put  on  his  best  coat  and  slowly  read  the 
service,  concluding  about  the  time  church  was  dismissed. 
And  he  went  through  a  similar  ceremony  at  the  time  of 
the  evening  service. 

Crompton  was  reserved,  industrious,  and  studious,  very 
fond  of  music,  and  he  made  a  violin  upon  which  he  be- 
came so  proficient  that  he  was  able  to  play  in  the  orchestra 
of  the  Bolton  Theatre. 

The  yarn  being  soft  and  constantly  breaking  on  the 
Hargreaves  jenny  upon  which  he  spun,  his  mother  scolded 
him  because  he  thus  lost  time  in  joining  threads.  His 
thoughts,  therefore,  early  turned  toward  an  improvement 
of  the  machine.  It  may  have  been  that  he  desired  more 
time  for  his  violin  or  for  his  pleasures.  As  he  attended 
night  school  and  was  studying  mathematics,  his  work 
kept  him  from  his  books  and  also  the  violin,  so  that  he  was 
more  and  more  driven  to  invent  some  improvement  that 
would  lessen  the  time  of  his  work. 

From  1774  to  1779,  or  from  the  ages  of  twenty-one  to 
twenty-six,  he  was  engaged  upon  the  mule,  his  only  leisure 
being  after  his  day's  work  or  during  hours  taken  from 
sleep. 

"My  mind  was  in  a  continual  endeavor  to  realize  a  more 


C  R  OM  P  T  O  N 


~&z 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  85 

perfect  principle  of  spinning,"  said  he,  "and,  though  often 
baffled,  I  as  often  renewed  the  attempt,  and  at  last  suc- 
ceeded to  my  utmost  desire  at  the  expense  of  every  shilling 
I  had  in  the  world." 

All  his  spare  cash  and  more  had  gone  for  tools  and 
materials,  and,  when  the  Bolton  Theatre  opened,  he  was 
glad  to  earn  eighteen  pence  a  night,  playing  the  violin  in 
the  orchestra.  He  worked  secretly,  not  even  his  mother 
and  uncle  knowing  what  he  was  doing  until  the  noise  of 
his  night  work  aroused  their  curiosity.  The  lights  and 
strange  noises  at  unusual  hours,  heard  by  the  neighbors, 
soon  made  them  think  that  the  hall  was  haunted,  and  their 
curiosity  finally  became  so  great  that  they  would  climb  up 
to  his  attic  windows  to  watch  his  work. 

His  first  mule  was  made  of  wood  and  iron  secured  from 
a  near-by  smithy,  and  the  point  of  his  invention  was  that 
his  spindle  carriage  was  so  adjusted  that  the  thread  had 
no  strain  upon  it  until  it  was  completed.  As  it  was  de- 
scribed, "The  carriage  with  the  spindle  could  by  a  move- 
ment of  the  hand  and  knee  recede  just  as  the  rollers  de- 
livered out  the  elongated  thread  in  a  soft  state,  so  that  it 
would  allow  of  a  considerable  stretch  before  the  thread 
had  to  encounter  the  strain  of  winding  on  the  spindle." 

"How  did  Crompton  make  that  yarn?"  was  the  uni- 
versal question  of  the  buyers  of  yarn  in  the  market-place, 
who  were  surprised  by  the  fineness  of  his  thread. 

It  became  possible  at  once  to  make  East  India  muslins 
at  home,  and  Crompton's  prosperity  began.  He  married, 
and  hired  a  cottage  near  the  Hall,  continuing  to  weave 
and  to  retain  his  work-room  in  the  Hall.  Orders  for  his 
yarn  at  his  own  price  poured  in  on  him,  and  great  was  the 
desire  to  know  how  he  spun.  All  kinds  of  plans  were  used 
to  ascertain  it.  Some  climbed  to  the  windows  of  the  work- 
room, and  peeped  in,  so  that  he  was  obliged  to  set  up  a 
screen  to  hide  his  machine,  and  one  of  the  manufacturing 
neighbors  even  climbed  into  the  loft  over  Crompton's 


86  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

workshop,  and  watched  him  for  several   days  through  a 
gimlet  hole  he  had  cut  in  the  ceiling. 

When  Blackburn  spinners  commenced  smashing  Har- 
greaves's  jennies,  Crompton  took  his  machine  apart,  and 
hid  it  in  a  loft  near  a  clock  in  the  Hall.  He  realized,  as 
he  had  no  money  for  a  patent,  that  he  must  either  destroy 
his  machine  or  make  it  public.  He  therefore  set  about 
raising  a  subscription  as  a  reward  for  making  known  to 
the  manufacturers  his  improvements  in  spinning,  and 
secured  fifty-five  subscriptions  of  one  guinea  each  and 
sixty-seven  of  six  shillings  and  sixpence,  less  than  the  cost 
of  one  mule.  He  realized  scarcely  anything  from  this, 
however,  as  most  of  the  subscribers  failed  to  meet  their 
subscriptions. 

Removing  to  Oldham,  he  continued  to  farm  and  spin 
to  such  perfection  that  his  yarn  was  the  best  and  finest 
in  the  market.  It  was  thought  that  he  must  have  made 
some  improvements  in  his  machine,  and,  to  discover  what 
these  were,  efforts  were  made  to  bribe  his  servants.  Sir 
Robert  Peel  offered  him  a  large  salary  and  prospective 
partnership,  which  he  refused.  Gentlemen  of  Manchester 
raised  about  five  hundred  pounds  for  him,  which  he  promptly 
sank  in  the  development  of  his  business. 

About  1780  he  invented  a  carding  machine  which  was 
not  practical.  In  1800  he  rented  the  top  story  of  a  Bolton 
factory,  and  installed  two  mules  and  the  necessary  pre- 
paratory machines,  but  he  could  not  keep  his  workmen, 
as  others  hired  them  as  soon  as  he  had  trained  them. 

A  grant  of  ten  thousand  pounds  sterling  by  Parliament 
to  Cartwright,  who  invented  the  power  loom,  led  Crompton 
in  1809  to  make  a  similar  appeal.  He  visited  all  the  manu- 
facturing districts,  receiving  much  attention  at  Glasgow. 
The  manufacturers  wanted  to  give  him  a  dinner,  but  his 
shyness  shattered  the  plans. 

"Rather  than  face  up,"  said  he,  "I  first  hid  myself  and 
then  bolted  from  the  city." 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  87 

His  case,  however,  was  not  laid  before  Parliament  until 
later;  but,  as  Parliament  was  slow  to  act,  he  wrote  to  Mr. 
Giddy,  who  was  pushing  his  claim,  that  there  would  be  no 
difficulty  in  getting  rid  of  him.  "The  only  anxiety  I  now 
feel  is  that  Parliament  may  not  dishonor  themselves.  Me 
they  cannot  dishonor.  All  the  risk  is  with  them.  I  con- 
sider it  to  be  the  greatest  honor  I  can  confer  upon  them 
to  offer  them  an  opportunity  of  doing  me  and  themselves 
justice." 

He  said,  further,  his  friends  and  family  would  be  ashamed, 
had  he  come  begging  or  demanding,  as  he  "only  wanted 
a  fair  hearing  and  dealing  according  to  merit." 

Spencer  Perceval,  the  prime  minister,  took  up  the  matter, 
and  was  ready  to  suggest  that  Crompton  be  granted  twenty 
thousand  pounds,  but,  before  he  could  recommend  it,  he  was 
assassinated  in  the  House  of  Commons,  1809,  by  John  Bel- 
lingham,  and  Crompton  was  allowed  only  five  thousand 
pounds.  He  invested  this  in  a  small  bleaching  establish- 
ment, where  he  spent  much  time  in  devising  new  patterns 
for  fancy  muslins,  which  his  neighbors  stole,  and  undersold 
him  by  manufacturing  cheaper  fabrics. 

So  prosperous  became  the  weaving  fraternity  through 
the  invention  of  the  mule  that  it  was  the  practice  of  Man- 
chester weavers  to  walk  the  streets  with  five-pound  notes 
stuck  in  their  hat -bands,  smoking  long  church  -  warden 
pipes;  and  they  would  allow  no  other  handicraft  men  in 
the  rooms  which  they  happened  to  be  occupying  in  the 
public  house.  By  1812  4,600,000  spindles  were  at  work 
on  mules  using  40,000,000  pounds  of  cotton  annually,  and 
employing  500,000  operatives. 

Crompton  was  a  man  of  much  sensitiveness.  He  believed 
hi  spiritualism  and  witchcraft,  and  was  an  excellent  mu- 
sician. He  had  physical  strength  and  much  personal 
beauty.  One  of  his  feats  was  to  take  a  sack  of  flour  by  the 
end  and  toss  it  on  to  a  cart.  He  is  described  as  wearing 
corduroy  breeches,  woolen  stockings,  dark  gray  or  black 


88  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

coat,  colored  neck-cloth,  and  always  a  clean  shirt  and  clean 
shoes.  If  any  one  on  the  Manchester  Exchange  ventured 
to  offer  him  lower  than  he  asked  for  his  yarn,  he  would 
wrap  up  his  samples  and  refuse  to  show  them  again.  Once, 
when  a  foreign  count  called  at  Bolton  to  see  him,  he  sent 
back  word  that  he  could  not  be  seen,  as  he  had  gone  to  bed. 
The  friend  replied  that  the  count  would  then  visit  him  in 
his  bedroom,  to  which  Crompton  answered  that,  if  he  did, 
he  would  hide  under  the  bed. 

He  was  not  a  success  as  a  business  man.  In  1824  some 
friends  helped  him  out  with  an  annuity  of  sixty-three 
pounds,  while  in  1826  another  attempt  was  made  to  secure 
aid  from  Parliament.  He  finally  died,  June  26,  1827,  at 
Bolton. 

EDMUND    CARTWEIGHT 

These  improvements  of  the  spinning  machines  so  In- 
creased the  output  of  yarn  that  there  was  almost  a  glut 
of  the  market,  and  more  and  more  imperative  grew  the 
demands  for  a  loom  that  would  handle  the  production  on 
a  greater  scale,  as  the  old  hand  loom  proved  so  totally 
inadequate. 

The  problem  of  the  power  loom,  therefore,  received 
consideration  in  many  quarters.  The  one  who  succeeded 
in  working  out  a  practical  plan  for  power  weaving,  and 
who  did  for  the  old  hand  loom  what  Paul,  Wyatt,  High, 
Arkwright,  and  Crompton  had  done  for  the  spinning  ma- 
chine, was  Edmund  Cartwright,  a  minister  of  the  Church 
of  England. 

He  knew  little  about  mechanics  when  a  chance  conversa- 
tion in  a  public  house  directed  his  attention  to  the  prob- 
lem of  power  weaving.  As  Cartwright  himself  described 
it,  "Happening  to  be  at  Matlock  in  the  summer  of  1784, 
I  fell  in  company  with  some  gentlemen  of  Manchester, 
when  the  conversation  turned  on  Arkwright's  spinning 
machinery.  One  of  the  company  observed  that,  as  soon  as 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  89 

Arkwright's  patent  expired,  so  many  mills  would  be  erected, 
and  so  much  cotton  spun,  that  hands  never  could  be  found 
to  weave  it.  To  this  observation  I  replied  that  Arkwright 
must  then  set  his  wits  to  work  and  invent  a  weaving  mill. 
This  brought  on  a  conversation  on  the  subject,  in  which 
the  Manchester  gentlemen  unanimously  agreed  that  the 
thing  was  impracticable;  and  in  defence  of  their  opinion 
they  adduced  arguments  which  I  certainly  was  incompetent 
to  answer,  or  even  to  comprehend,  being  totally  ignorant 
of  the  subject,  having  never  at  any  time  seen  a  person 
weave.  I  controverted,  however,  the  impracticability  of 
the  thing  by  remarking  that  there  had  lately  been  ex- 
hibited in  London  an  automaton  figure  which  played  at 
chess. 

"Some  time  afterwards  a  particular  circumstance  re- 
calling this  conversation  to  my  mind,  it  struck  me  that, 
as  in  plain  weaving  according  to  the  conception  I  then 
had  of  the  business,  there  could  be  only  three  movements 
which  were  to  follow  each  other  in  succession,  there  would 
be  little  difficulty  in  producing  and  repeating  them.  Full 
of  these  ideas,  I  immediately  employed  a  carpenter  and 
smithy  to  carry  them  into  effect.  As  soon  as  the  machine 
was  finished,  I  got  a  weaver  to  put  in  the  warp,  which  was 
of  such  material  as  sail  cloth  is  usually  made  of.  To  my 
great  delight,  a  piece  of  cloth,  such  as  it  was,  was  the  pro- 
duction. 

"As  I  had  never  before  turned  my  thoughts  to  anything 
mechanical,  either  in  theory  or  practice,  nor  had  even 
seen  a,  loom  at  work,  or  knew  anything  of  its  construction, 
you  will  readily  suppose  that  my  first  loom  must  have  been 
a  most  rude  piece  of  machinery.  The  warp  was  placed 
perpendicularly,  the  reed  fell  with  a  force  of  at  least  hah* 
a  hundred  weight,  and  the  springs  which  threw  the  shuttle 
were  strong  enough  to  have  thrown  a  Congreve  rocket. 
In  short,  it  required  the  strength  of  two  powerful  men  to 
work  the  machine  at  a  slow  rate,  and  only  for  a  short  time. 


90  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

Conceiving  in  my  great  simplicity  that  I  had  accomplished 
all  that  was  required,  I  then  secured  what  I  thought  a  most 
valuable  property  by  a  patent,  April  4,  1785.  This  being 
done,  I  then  condescended  to  see  how  other  people  wove; 
and  you  will  guess  my  astonishment  when  I  compared  their 
easy  mode  of  operation  with  mine.  Availing  myself, 
however,  of  what  I  then  saw,  I  made  a  loom,  in  its 
general  principles,  nearly  as  they  are  now  made;  but  it 
was  not  till  the  year  1787  that  I  completed  my  inven- 
tion, when  I  took  my  last  weaving  patent,  August  1st  of 
that  year." 

Cartwright  had  thus  accomplished  what  had  seemed 
to  be  impossible, — he  had  made  a  loom  which  could  be 
automatically  stopped  upon  the  breaking  of  a  thread,  and 
which  made  practical  the  production  of  fabrics  by  power 
machinery. 

That  Cartwright,  a  complete  stranger  to  the  textile 
industry,  should  have  been  able  to  accomplish  what  me- 
chanical geniuses  in  the  industry  itself  had  worked  in 
vain  to  attain  is  but  another  illustration  of  the  truth 
which  crops  out  so  repeatedly  in  the  history  of  invention, 
and  even  in  the  merchandising  of  goods, — that  some  of 
the  most  remarkable  inventions  have  sprung  from,  been 
evolved  and  worked  out  by,  men  who,  when  they  first 
conceived  of  an  improvement  in  the  required  machine, 
were  strangers  to  the  occupation  which  the  invention  bene- 
fited. It  is  also  true  of  business  that  some  of  the  most 
successful  plans  of  merchandising  or  of  marketing  goods 
have  come  from  a  man  who  was  not  engaged  in  the  business 
that  the  idea  helped. 

Edmund  Cartwright  was  born  at  Nottingham,  April 
24,  1743,  and  was  the  fourth  son  of  William  Cartwright, 
who  came  of  an  established  family.  Cartwright  was  edu- 
cated at  the  Wakefield  Grammar  School,  and  was  par- 
ticularly proficient  in  mathematics.  He  entered  Oxford 
at  fourteen  years  of  age.  Here  literature  attracted  his 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  91 

attention,  and  he  wrote  verses  and  book  reviews  for  the 
Monthly  Review.  He  married,  settled  in  the  rectory  of 
Goodby,  Marwood,  Leicestershire,  and  later  obtained 
a  prebend  in  the  cathedral  of  Lincoln.  He  devoted  him- 
self to  his  calling  and  literature.  He  had  already  pub- 
lished "The  Armine  and  Elvira,"  a  legendary  poem,  and 
also  "The  Prince  of  Peace." 

As  described  by  his  friend  Crabbe,  the  poet,  "Few  persons 
could  tell  a  good  story  so  well,  no  man  make  more  of  a 
trite  one.  I  can  just  remember  him,  the  portly,  dignified, 
old  gentleman  of  the  last  generation,  grave  and  polite,  but 
full  of  humor  and  spirit." 

The  manufacturers  to  whom  he  showed  his  loom  gave 
him  little  encouragement,  and  finally,  in  order  to  bring  out 
his  invention,  he  set  up  a  factory  of  his  own  at  Doncaster, 
a  bull  at  first  supplying  the  power,  which  was  replaced  by 
a  steam-engine  in  1789.  In  the  same  year  he  took  out  a 
patent  for  a  wool-combing  machine.  In  1792  he  invented 
a  machine  for  making  rope.  The  enterprise  at  Doncaster 
failed  of  success  because  of  Cartwright's  ignorance  of 
business  details  and  the  malicious  jealousy  of  other  manu- 
facturers, who  were  now  beginning  to  realize  the  value  of 
his  inventions. 

He  had  already  in  1786  commenced  improvements  on 
the  steam-engine,  patents  for  which  he  took  out  in  1797, 
alcohol  being  used  for  fuel.  He  had  pronounced  scruples 
about  using  other  men's  ideas,  and  therefore  did  not 
look  at  other  inventions  of  engines,  lest  he  unconsciously 
borrow  an  idea.  For  this  reason  his  work  was  quite  orig- 
inal. It  is  said  that  he  assisted  Fulton  in  his  steamboat 
experiments.  The  main  bent  of  his  inventive  mind  was 
constantly  at  work  upon  textile  problems,  and  his  idea 
bore  further  fruit  in  the  invention,  in  1789,  of  a  machine 
which  was  even  more  original  than  the  power  loom. 

The  prejudice  shown  by  the  spinners  and  weavers  against 
inventions  turned  toward  Cartwright  in  1790,  when  a  mill 


92  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

which  had  been  erected  by  Messrs.  Grimshaw,  of  Man- 
chester, and  which  contained  four  hundred  of  Cartwright's 
looms  and  was  operated  by  steam,  was  set  on  fire  and 
burned  to  the  ground  by  the  working-people.  This  was 
such  a  blow  to  Cartwright's  purse  and  spirits,  as  other 
manufacturers  failed  to  install  his  machines,  that  soon 
after  he  gave  up  his  Doncaster  mill,  and  became  a  member 
of  the  Society  for  the  Encouragement  of  Arts  and  Manu- 
factures. 

As  has  been  the  experience  of  other  manufacturers,  he, 
too,  was  obliged  to  wage  suits  in  protection  of  his  patents, 
and  finally,  discouraged,  turned  his  attention  to  the  in- 
vention of  agricultural  implements,  inventing  in  1803, 
while  in  charge  of  the  Duke  of  Bedford's  experimental 
farm,  a  three-furrow  plough  and  other  improvements.  At 
last  he  attracted  the  attention  of  the  government,  which 
in  1809  granted  him  a  reward  of  ten  thousand  pounds  with 
which  he  bought  a  farm  at  Hollonden,  Kent.  Here  he 
lived  until  his  death,  Oct.  30,  1823,  making  implements 
and  improvements  in  agricultural  methods. 


INVENTIONS  OF  KNITTING  MACHINES 

It  is  supposed  that  knitting  was  known  to  the  ancients, 
although  there  is  no  direct  evidence,  the  first  historic  men- 
tion being  about  the  time  of  Henry  IV.  of  England.  In 
ancient  times  the  leg  was  generally  left  uncovered,  and,  when 
stockings  were  first  worn,  they  were  cut  with  scissors  from 
cloth  of  linen,  woolen,  or  silk,  and  sewed  together.  Knit- 
ting probably  began  at  an  early  date  in  the  history  of 
England,  for  woven  woolen  caps  were  worn  by  the 
peasants  of  England  and  Scotland  as  far  back  as  the 
Norman  conquest;  and  knitted  caps  came  into  general 
use  among  the  poorer  classes  in  England  some  time  prior 
to  1488. 

The  price  was  then  fixed  by  an  act  of  Henry  VII.  at 


CARTWRIGHT'S  LOOM 
(According  to  the  Patent  Specifications,  April  4,  1786) 

A,  the  warp  beam;  B,  the  cloth  beam;  C,  the  boxes  containing  the 
springs  that  throw  the  shuttles;  D,  a  lever  having  a  corresponding  one  on 
the  opposite  side  for  elevating  the  reed,  or  comb;  E,  a  lever  having  a 
corresponding  one  on  the  opposite  side  for  reversing  the  threads;  F,  the 
cylinder  which  gives  motion  to  the  levers. 

X.B. — The  warp  is  kept  to  a  due  degree  of  tension  by  the  counteraction 
of  either  a  weight  or  spring.  The  web  is  made  to  wind  by  the  like  power, 
though  in  an  inferior  degree,  and  is  prevented  as  the  strike  of  the  reed,  or 
comb,  brings  it  down  from  unwinding  by  a  ratch  and  click. 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  93 

two  shillings,  eightpence.  By  1530  the  word  "knit"  was 
a  common  term  in  England,  and  there  are  many  references 
to  the  knitting  of  bonnets  and  hose,  and  the  practice  of 
knitting  soon  became  a  domestic  employment. 

The  first  attempt  to  knit  stockings  by  machinery  is 
supposed  to  have  been  made  by  the  Rev.  William  Lee,  of 
St.  John's  College,  Cambridge,  who  was  born  at  Wood- 
borough,  near  Nottingham,  and  completed  his  invention 
before  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century.  As  one 
story  goes,  Lee  was  deeply  in  love  with  a  young  towns- 
woman  of  his,  but,  whenever  he  courted  her,  she  seemed 
more  interested  in  her  knitting  than  in  the  attention  of 
her  suitor.  This  piqued  Mr.  Lee,  and  he  determined  to 
make  a  machine  that  would  turn  out  work  enough  so  that 
hand  knitting  would  be  a  profitless  employment,  accomplish- 
ing his  design  about  1589.  He  taught  his  relatives  to  work 
under  him,  and  for  some  time  carried  on  his  work  at  Cal- 
verton,  England.  Oliver  Cromwell  investigated  the  ma- 
chine-wrought hosiery  trade,  and  granted  it  a  charter  June 
13,  1657. 

It  is  said  that  Lee's  invention  was  brought  to  the  at- 
tention of  Queen  Elizabeth,  who,  while  she  expressed  her 
admiration  for  the  ingenuity  of  the  inventor,  was  much 
disappointed  because,  instead  of  the  fine  silk  hose  she  had 
expected,  the  output  was  coarse  worsted  stockings  which 
had  only  eight  needles,  or  wales,  to  the  inch  width.  A 
patent  was  sought  for  Lee  from  Queen  Elizabeth  by  her 
kinsman,  Lord  Hunsdon,  but,  in  refusing  the  request,  she 
said: — 

"My  lord,  I  have  too  much  love  for  my  poor  people  who 
obtain  their  bread  by  the  employment  of  knitting  to  give 
my  money  to  forward  an  invention  that  will  tend  to  lead 
to  their  ruin,  by  depriving  them  of  employment  and  thus 
make  them  beggars.  Had  Mr.  Lee  made  a  machine  that 
would  have  made  silk  stockings,  I  should,  I  think,  have 
been  somewhat  justified  in  granting  him  a  patent  for  that 


94  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

monopoly,  which  would  have  affected  only  a  small  number 
of  my  subjects,  but  to  enjoy  the  exclusive  privilege  of  mak- 
ing stockings  for  the  whole  of  my  subjects  is  too  important 
to  be  granted  to  any  individual." 

And  no  patent  was  ever  granted  Lee.  Spurred  by  the 
queen's  remarks,  however,  Lee  set  about  constructing 
a  machine  for  making  silk  stockings,  and,  aided  by  his 
brother  James,  succeeded  in  1598  in  making  a  machine  on 
which  he  was  able  to  produce  a  pair  of  stockings  which  he 
presented  to  Queen  Elizabeth,  who  was  greatly  pleased 
with  their  beauty  and  elasticity.  They  brought  him, 
however,  no  money  or  patent.  Discouraged  and  disap- 
pointed, he  accepted  an  invitation  from  Henry  IV.  of  France 
to  establish  himself  in  that  country,  and  was  presented 
by  Sully  to  the  French  king.  The  assassination  of  King 
Henry,  however,  by  Ravaillac,  while  Lee  was  waiting  at 
Paris  for  a  grant  of  privilege  to  manufacture  at  Rouen, 
ended  Lee's  prospects,  and  he  returned  to  Paris,  where  he 
died  in  want  in  1610. 

His  machines  were  brought  back  to  England  by  his 
brother,  who  established  the  industry  there.  And  early 
in  the  seventeenth  century  the  trade  association  of  the 
London  Frame  Work  Knitters  was  formed  to  regulate 
conditions  of  work  and  prices.  Knowledge  of  the  crude 
stocking  frame  little  by  little  leaked  out  of  England,  though 
for  a  long  time  England  had  almost  an  exclusive  manufact- 
ure of  machine-made  hose.  No  marked  improvement, 
however,  was  made  until  Jedediah  Strutt,  Arkwright's 
partner,  became  interested  in  the  process. 

Strutt  was  a  farmer  at  Blackwell,  and  had  married  the 
sister  of  William  Woollett,  a  hosier.  His  brother-in-law 
having  called  his  attention  to  the  stocking  frame  and  the 
need  of  improvement  so  that  ribbed  hose  could  be  made, 
Strutt,  after  much  study,  succeeded  in  compassing  his 
ribbed  stocking  frame,  and  in  1758  took  out  his  patents. 
He  removed  to  Derby,  and  with  his  brother-in-law  estab- 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  95 

lished  his  well-known  mills  for  making  hosiery.  When 
he  died  in  1797  at  Derby,  his  mills  were  the  greatest  in 
England. 

IPSWICH  MILLS 

The  largest  manufacturers  of  knit  goods  hi  America  to-day 
are  the  Ipswich  Mills  of  Ipswich  and  South  Boston,  Mass., 
and  Belmont,  N.H.  This  industry  at  Ipswich  began  in 
1818,  when  a  number  of  knitters  from  Nottingham,  Eng- 
land, immigrated  to  Ipswich  and  established  the  industry 
which  they  had  mastered  at  Nottingham.  The  same  year 
the  first  stocking  machine  was  imported,  secreted  in  the 
hold  of  the  ship,  and  packed  in  a  cargo  of  salt,  as  there 
was  a  fine  of  five  hundred  pounds  sterling  for  exporting 
stocking  machinery  from  England.  It  was  not  brought  to 
Ipswich  until  1822,  when  it  knit  the  first  pair  of  stockings 
in  the  kitchen  of  a  private  dwelling.  Other  machines  were 
secretly  imported,  and  in  1824  Augustine  Heard,  a  resident 
of  Ipswich,  established  the  industry. 

The  building  used  by  Mr.  Heard's  company  was  shortly 
before  1868  bought  by  Mr.  Amos  A.  Lawrence,  and  trans- 
ferred to  the  Ipswich  Mills. 

The  industry  was  a  new  one,  the  machinery  crude,  and  the 
labor  unskilled.  And,  as  America  did  not  realize  that 
hosiery  could  be  made  in  this  country,  women  refused  to 
buy  anything  with  the  American  mark,  so  that  the  industry 
first  travelled  a  far  from  easy  road. 

Mr.  Lawrence  in  January,  1868,  wrote:  "I  am  starting 
up  my  mill  at  Ipswich  again,  which  has  been  stopped  for 
a  few  weeks.  This  attempt  to  manufacture  cotton  stock- 
ings by  machinery,  so  that  they  can  be  sold  at  $1.50  per 
dozen,  has  caused  me  to  lose  not  less  than  $100  a  day  for 
eight  hundred  days, — $80,000, — yet  I  am  not  discouraged, 
though  I  feel  the  loss  very  much." 

The  persistency  with  which  the  pioneer  mill  was  handled, 
the  ingenious  invention  of  machinery,  and  competition  have 


96  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

made  it  possible  to  place  on  the  market  stockings  of  better 
and  better  value  at  continually  lower  prices.  The  result 
has  been  that  this  part  of  our  wardrobe  is  constantly  grow- 
ing less  expensive. 


JOSEPH   MARIE   CHARLES  JACQUARD 

The  last  of  the  great  inventions  which  have  accomplished 
such  wonders  for  the  textile  industry  was  that  of  the  Jac- 
quard  loom.  It  made  it  possible  to  weave  into  fabrics  of 
all  kinds  the  most  intricate  and  beautiful  designs. 

Its  inventor,  Joseph  Marie  Charles  Jacquard,  was  born 
July  7,  1752,  at  Lyons.  His  father  was  a  working  weaver, 
while  his  mother  is  said  to  have  been  a  pattern  maker. 

Thinking  that  Jacquard  could  better  develop  his  physical 
powers  in  the  pursuit  of  a  trade,  his  father  gave  him  little 
or  no  education.  When  he  was  about  twenty,  his  father 
died,  leaving  him  a  small  house  and  hand  loom,  and  he  turned 
his  genius  to  improvements  in  weaving.  He  was  unsuc- 
cessful, however,  and  sought  other  occupations,  working 
first  in  a  plaster  quarry  at  Bresse,  near  Lyons,  afterwards 
at  cutlery,  type  founding,  and  weaving  in  Lyons.  He 
served  during  the  Revolution  of  1792,  his  son  being  killed 
while  defending  Lyons  against  the  army  of  the  Convention. 

Soon  after  he  attracted  the  attention  of  the  Council  of 
Lyons,  which  gave  him  access  to  an  experimental  loom  for 
the  development  of  weaving  improvements  in  the  Palace 
of  Fine  Arts,  with  a  stipulation  that  he  should  teach  scholars 
without  charge.  He  was  thus  engaged  when  the  Society 
of  Arts  in  London  offered  a  reward  for  a  machine  for 
making  fishing  nets.  On  the  2d  of  February,  1804, 
Jacquard  received  three  thousand  francs  and  a  gold 
medal  from  the  London  Society  for  a  machine  which  he 
had  perfected  and  exhibited  to  the  Conservatorium  of  Arts 
and  Trades. 

This  brought  him  to  the  attention  of  Napoleon  Bona- 


(~L(tii({y      I/  (H  I 

C\  me  r 


u  r(  \ 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  97 

parte,  who  sent  for  him.    He  was  received  by  Napoleon  and 
his  great  minister,  Carnot. 

"Are  you  the  man  who  can  do  what  God  Almighty  can- 
not,— tie  a  knot  in  a  taut  string?"  he  was  asked  by  the 
Emperor. 

"I  can  do  not  what  God  cannot,  but  what  God  has  taught 
me  to  do,"  was  the  reply. 

He  was  given  a  position  in  the  Conservatorium  of  Arts, 
where  he  had  not  only  an  opportunity  to  improve  his  own 
weaving  machine,  but  had  also  the  chance  to  study  the  work 
on  textile  machines  of  Bouchon,  Falcon,  and  Vaucanson. 
"Yaucanson's  machines  and  automatons,  one  of  which 
was  said  to  have  been  a  duck  that  would  waddle,  quack, 
swim,  eat,  and  digest  food  by  mechanical  process,  surely 
furnished  ideas  to  Jacquard.  Afterwards  in  1804  he  re- 
turned to  Lyons  where  he  finished  his  loom.  It  combined 
the  best  parts  of  those  of  his  predecessors,  together  with 
those  of  his  own  improvements,  and  was  the  first  machine 
to  do  practical  design  weaving. 

The  Jacquard  loom  had  ingeniously  arranged  weighted 
strings  which  passed  over  a  pulley  and  fell  into  perforated 
cards.  Each  motion  changed  the  position  of  these  strings, 
and  allowed  some  of  them  to  go  through  the  holes  and  thus 
draw  up  the  warp  thread  so  that  it  was  skipped  by  the  warp; 
while  others  would  strike  the  card,  and  leave  their  strands 
in  place  to  be  regularly  woven.  In  this  way  the  weaver 
could  pass  his  threads  over,  under,  or  through  the  warp, 
as  the  design  required. 

Napoleon  Bonaparte  in  1806  granted  him  an  annuity  of 
three  thousand  francs  with  the  understanding  that  he  should 
transfer  his  invention  to  the  city  of  Lyons,  as  well  as  any 
further  improvements  he  might  make. 

His  experience  was  like  that  of  all  other  great  inventors, — 
so  violent  was  the  opposition  of  the  weavers  to  the  intro- 
duction of  his  loom  that  the  Conseil  des  Prudhommes  broke 
up  his  machine  in  the  public  places,  and  Jacquard  was  com- 


98  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

pelled  to  flee  to  save  his  life.  Little  by  little,  however,  the 
looms  were  adopted,  and  proved  to  be  of  the  greatest  value, 
establishing  Lyons  as  the  art  centre  of  the  textile  industry. 

Jacquard  died  Aug.  7,  1834,  at  Oullins,  France,  having 
attained  the  ripe  old  age  of  eighty-two,  and  having  lived 
long  enough  to  see  over  thirty  thousand  Jacquard  looms 
in  operation  in  the  city  of  Lyons. 


MACHINES  FOB  SPINNING  FLAX 

The  inventions  of  Kay,  Hargreaves,  Arkwright,  and 
Crompton,  were  principally  applicable  to  cotton  and  wool, 
and  made  little  improvement  in  the  hand  methods  of  spin- 
ning flax,  because  the  raw  flax  was  too  brittle  to  stand  the 
strain  of  the  tension  that  the  spinning  machine  could  with 
safety  put  upon  cotton.  The  impetus  given,  therefore,  to 
cotton  manufacture  proved  most  disastrous  to  the  linen 
industry.  The  demand  for  linen  fabrics  fell  off,  and  the 
trade  which  had  been  the  life-blood  of  villages  and  whole 
provinces  disappeared,  and  to  a  much  lesser  degree  took 
refuge  in  the  more  remote  rural  localities  where  it  was  able 
to  resist  the  encroachments  of  the  power  loom.  In  these 
localities,  such  as  in  parts  of  Ireland,  linen  still  continues 
to  be  spun  and  woven  by  hand,  and  the  skill  shown  by 
hand  spinners  and  hand  weavers  is  not  excelled  by  the 
most  intricate  machinery  of  to-day. 

In  1725  machinery  of  a  crude  nature  had  been  applied 
in  Ireland  to  the  spinning  industry  without  success.  Eng- 
lish inventors  had  before  this,  however,  set  to  work  upon 
the  problem  of  spinning  flax,  and  the  first  practical  machines 
were  the  inventions  of  John  Kendrew  and  Thomas  Port- 
house,  of  Darlington,  England,  who  in  1787  took  out  patents 
upon  a  mule,  or  machine,  constructed  upon  a  new  principle, 
for  spinning  hemp,  tow,  flax,  and  wool.  These  machines, 
with  many  improvements  and  modifications,  have  led  to 
the  perfect  system  for  spinning  flax  now  in  use. 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 


JAMES   WATT. 

The  progress  made  in  textile  machinery  in  England  would 
have  been  handicapped  by  a  lack  of  motive  power  to  drive 
the  machines,  had  it  not  been  for  the  improvements  made 
in  the  steam-engine  by  James  Watt,  the  Scottish  engi- 
neer. The  amount  of  water  power  was  limited,  and  the 
supply  during  the  course  of  the  year,  owing  to  rainfall, 
was  irregular  and  often  inadequate.  Watt's  improve- 
ments in  the  steam-engine  came  at  a  tune  when  England 
needed  steam  to  drive  the  wheels  of  the  great  industry,  the 
output  of  which  her  inventors  had  so  greatly  increased. 

The  steam-engine  when  Watt's  attention  was  attracted  to 
it  in  1764,  by  being  called  upon  to  repair  a  model  of  the  crude 
engine  of  Thomas  Newcomen  that  was  a  part  of  the  scien- 
tific apparatus  at  Glasgow  College  where  Watt  was  mathe- 
matical instrument  maker,  was  used  solely  to  pump  water 
from  the  mines  at  Cornwall.  Watt  perceived  its  enormous 
waste  consumption  of  steam,  and  began  an  investigation  to 
learn  the  cause  and  the  remedy.  This  he  was  enabled  to 
do  quite  as  much  by  his  training  as  by  his  inventive  genius. 

He  was  born  at  Greenock,  Jan.  19,  1736.  By  the  failure 
of  his  father,  who  was  a  small  merchant,  he  was  thrown 
upon  his  own  resources,  and  went  to  London  at  the  age  of 
nineteen.  He  apprenticed  himself  to  John  Morgan,  a  phil- 
osophical instrument  maker,  but,  his  health  breaking,  he 
returned  home,  and  through  acquaintances  in  the  Glasgow 
College  he  secured  his  position  in  the  college. 

He  found  that  Newcomen' s  engine  consumed  enormous 
quantities  of  steam  and  coal  because  of  the  alternate  heat- 
ing and  cooling  of  the  cylinder,  owing  to  the  use  of  water 
in  chilling  it  and  its  faulty  construction.  Watt  cased  the 
cylinder  in  a  non-conducting  material  and  introduced  a 
steam  jacket,  or  layer  of  steam,  between  the  cylinder  proper 
and  an  outer  shell. 

He  took  out  his  first  patent  in  1769.     As  he  had  needed 


100  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

money  to  carry  on  his  experiments,  he  had  formed  a  part- 
nership with  Dr.  John  Roebuck,  who  had  iron  works  at 
Carron.  Roebuck  became  involved  in  financial  difficulties, 
and  for  a  number  of  years  Watt  was  occupied  with  civil 
engineering  which  entailed  canal  digging  and  harbor  dredg- 
ing. In  1768  he  met  Mathew  Boulton,  head  of  the  Soho 
engineering  work  at  Birmingham.  The  two  formed  a 
partnership,  and  in  1775  applied  for  a  renewal  of  Watt's 
patents  which  he  received  for  twenty-five  years. 

Watt  from  this  time  on  devoted  himself  to  perfecting  and 
developing  the  steam-engine.  He  took  out  a  number  of 
patents,  and  soon  the  perfected  engine  had  driven  New- 
comen's  from  the  Cornish  mines.  His  last  patent  was 
taken  out  in  1784,  when  he  had  completed  the  steam-engine 
so  that  it  was  applicable  to  power-driving  of  all  sorts.  It 
was  practically  the  engine  as  it  has  been  in  use  to  within  a 
few  years.  He  found  it  a  steam-pump,  slow  working, 
cumbrous,  and  excessively  wasteful  of  fuel.  His  patent 
made  it  economical  in  working,  powerful,  and  efficient, 
but  it  was  still  only  a  steam-pump.  His  later  inventions 
adapted  it  to  driving  machinery  of  all  kinds,  and  made  it 
particularly  applicable  to  use  in  textile  mills.  He  retired 
from  business  in  1800,  and  his  business  was  carried  on  for 
years  by  his  two  sons  and  a  son  of  Boulton.  He  died  on 
the  19th  of  August,  1819. 

By  1811  the  process  of  making  cloth  had  reached  such 
perfection  in  England  that,  according  to  "The  Book  of 
Days,"  Sir  John  Throckmorton,  of  Berkshire,  could  wager 
a  thousand  guineas  that  he  would  at  eight  o'clock  on  a  partic- 
ular evening  sit  down  to  dinner  in  a  well-woven,  well-dyed, 
well-made  suit  the  wool  of  which  formed  the  fleece  on 
a  sheep's  back  at  five  o'clock  on  the  same  morning.  Mr. 
Coxetter,  of  Greenham  Mills  at  Newbury,  was  put  in 
charge  of  the  work. 

He  had  at  5  A.M.  on  the  28th  of  June  two  South  Devon 
sheep  shorn.  "The  wool  was  washed,  carded,  stubbed, 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  101 

roved,  spun  and  woven;  the -cloth  was  scoured,  fulled, 
tented,  raised,  sheared,  dyed  and  dressed.  The  tailor  was 
at  hand  and  made  up  the  finished  cloth  into  garments,  and 
at  a  quarter  past  six  in  the  evening  Sir  John  Throckmorton 
sat  down  to  dinner  at  the  head  of  his  guests  in  a  complete 
damson-colored  suit  that  had  thus  been  made, — winning 
the  wager  with  an  hour  and  three-quarters  to  spare." 


ELI    WHITNEY 

The  improvements  in  spuming  and  weaving  machinery 
soon  brought  cotton  manufacturing  to  a  pass  where  its 
demand  for  raw  material  outran  the  supply,  and  ways  and 
means  for  increasing  the  raw  cotton  available  became  a 
pressing  necessity. 

As  the  industry  about  Manchester  had  grown,  new  fields 
for  the  production  of  cotton  were  developed.  The  original 
source  of  supply  was  India,  other  parts  of  the  East,  and 
Egypt.  It  was  indigenous,  however,  to  the  West  Indies, 
and  soon  these  islands  became  a  source  of  supply.  About 
1770  West  India  cotton  was  transplanted  to  Georgia  and 
later  to  North  and  South  Carolina  and  other  parts  of  the 
South,  and  it  readily  took  growth  and  large  crops  were 
raised,  which  materially  augmented  Manchester's  supply. 

Although  the  production  of  cotton  was  thus  increased, 
the  separation  of  the  cotton  from  the  seed  and  boll  was  slow 
and  tedious,  owing  to  the  work  being  done  by  the  hand 
labor  of  the  large  slave  population  of  the  South.  It  was 
largely  the  work  of  colored  women,  who  separated  the  seed 
and  cleaned  the  cotton  from  the  boll  with  their  finger-nails, 
and  it  took  a  negro  a  day  to  pick  a  pound  of  cotton  from 
the  boll  and  separate  it  from  the  entangled  seed.  All  that 
could  be  produced  in  the  year  1792  was  138,324  pounds. 

The  invention  of  the  cotton  gin,  perfected  in  April, 
1793,  by  Eli  Whitney,  a  graduate  of  Yale,  revolutionized 
the  industry,  and  enabled  a  negro  to  clean  five  thousand 


102  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

pounds  of  cotton  a  day,  thereby  greatly  increasing  the  sup- 
ply of  American  cotton.  Indeed,  within  a  few  years  of 
the  invention  of  the  gin  the  production  had  grown  from 
the  one  hundred  thousand  and  odd  pounds  to  many  millions 
of  pounds  of  cotton  a  year,  and  had  stimulated  the  cotton 
industry  so  greatly  that  the  production  of  cotton  goods 
led  all  others. 

Whitney's  early  environment  and  training  gave  his  mind 
the  mechanical  bent  which  facilitated  his  inventive  genius. 
At  his  father's  farm  at  Westboro,  Mass.,  where  he  was 
born  Dec.  8,  1765,  being  one  of  a  family  of  thirteen 
children,  there  was  a  machine  shop  in  which  the  elder 
Whitney  made  wheels  of  various  kinds  and  used  lathes 
for  turning  tools  and  chair  posts.  In  this  shop  Eli,  when 
a  boy  not  yet  in  his  teens,  was  wont  to  make  things,  and 
soon  became  quite  skilful  in  the  handling  of  machinery. 

"What  has  Eli  been  doing?"  asked  his  father  one  day, 
upon  a  return  from  a  trip,  of  the  woman  who  kept  house 
for  his  motherless  children,  as  his  wife  was  dead. 

"He  has  been  making  a  fiddle,"  was  the  answer. 

"Ah!  I  fear  Eli  will  have  to  take  his  portion  with  fiddles," 
replied  the  father,  but  the  fiddle  was  very  well  made.  And 
such  a  knowledge  had  Eli  obtained  through  its  construc- 
tion that  the  whole  countryside  was  soon  coming  to  him 
to  mend  fiddles.  At  another  time  when  Whitney,  the  elder, 
was  at  church,  the  younger  took  his  father's  watch  apart 
and  successfully  put  it  together  again. 

When  he  was  only  thirteen,  he  made  the  first  machine 
for  manufacturing  nails,  the  supply  of  which  was  cut  off 
during  the  Revolution  by  the  English  blockade,  and  for 
three  years  previous  to  1781  he  was  engaged  in  supplying 
the  large  demand  that  sprang  up. 

His  father  desired  him  to  go  to  college,  but  it  was  not 
until  he  was  eighteen  that  he  made  up  his  mind  to  do  it. 
Although  skilled  as  a  mechanic,  he  lacked  the  knowledge 
and  the  means  necessary  to  go.  Accordingly,  he  set  about 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  103 

preparing  himself  by  working  for  seven  dollars  a  month  and 
board  in  the  towns  about  Worcester,  Mass.,  by  studying 
at  spare  moments,  and  attending,  when  he  could,  the  neigh- 
boring academy.  He  added  also  to  his  income  by  selling 
bonnet  pins  and  walking-sticks. 

At  Yale,  which  he  entered  when  twenty-three  years  old, 
he  made  mathematics  his  favorite  study.  When  the  as- 
tronomical apparatus  broke  down  during  some  experiments, 
so  expert  had  he  become  that  he  was  able  to  repair  it.  Upon 
his  graduation  he  decided  to  study  law,  and,  to  secure  the 
means,  obtained  a  position  as  tutor  to  the  son  of  a  South 
Carolina  gentleman  at  eighty  guineas  a  year.  Small-pox 
delayed  his  sailing,  and  he  fell  in  with  the  party  of  the 
widow  of  General  Nathanael  Greene,  who  was  also  waiting 
to  sail.  The  father  of  his  prospective  pupil,  becoming  dis- 
couraged by  the  delay,  engaged  another  tutor,  and  through 
the  aid  of  Phineas  Miller,  another  Yale  graduate,  Whitney 
obtained  a  position  as  tutor  in  Mrs.  Greene's  family  at 
Mulberry  Grove,  near  Savannah. 

One  day  some  gentlemen  were  discussing,  under  the  live- 
oaks  and  magnolias  at  Mulberry  Grove,  the  slow  manner 
of  extracting  the  cotton  seed  from  the  cotton  boll. 

"Why  don't  you  go  to  work  and  get  something  which 
will  do  it?"  it  is  said  Mrs.  Greene  exclaimed. 

"Your  good  husband,  though  he  cleaned  the  red-coats 
out  of  Georgia,  could  not  clean  the  seeds  from  the  cotton," 
was  the  retort. 

"Apply  to  my  young  friend  here,"  answered  Mrs.  Greene, 
referring  to  Whitney.  "He  can  make  anything.  He  has 
repaired  my  children's  toys.  My  tambour  frame  was  all 
out  of  kilter,  and  I  could  not  embroider  with  it  at  all, 
because  it  pulled  and  tore  the  threads  so  badly.  Mr. 
Whitney  noticed  this,  took  it  out  on  the  porch,  tinkered 
with  it  a  little,  and — there,  see  what  he  has  done  with  it, — 
made  its  frame  as  good  as  new." 

"As  for  cleaning  cotton  seed,"  Mr.  Whitney  is  reported 


104  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

to  have  said,  "why,  gentlemen,  I  shouldn't  know  the  seed 
if  I  saw  it.  I  don't  think  I  ever  saw  cotton  or  cotton  seed 
in  my  life." 

The  next  day  he  made  it  a  point  to  see  some  cotton, 
and  then  set  to  work  on  a  machine  to  pick  it,  Mrs.  Greene 
giving  him  a  room  in  which  he  could  secretly  carry  on  his 
experiments. 

He  had  observed  old  negro  mammies  clawing  the  seed 
off  with  their  nails,  and  with  this  idea  in  his  mind  he  set 
to  work  on  a  cylinder  covered  with  the  teeth  of  a  wire 
comb.  He  placed  the  rollers  with  the  teeth  so  near  the 
cotton,  which  projected  from  an  upper  hopper  of  iron 
mesh,  that  the  teeth  would  claw  away  the  loose  fibres  from 
the  cotton  bolls.  Caught  by  the  saw-like  teeth,  the  fibre 
dropped  the  seeds  through  the  openings  of  the  gratings 
of  the  hopper  which  held  the  cotton.  The  brushes  of  the 
second  roller  travelled  in  an  opposite  direction,  so  as  to 
remove  the  cotton  from  the  first  cylinder. 

The  invention  was  completed  some  time  in  April,  1793, 
for  in  November,  1793,  Whitney  wrote  Thomas  Jefferson, 
then  Secretary  of  State:  "Within  about  ten  days  after  my 
first  conception  of  the  plan,  I  made  a  small,  though  im- 
perfect model.  Experiments  with  this  encouraged  me  to 
make  one  on  a  larger  scale;  but  the  extreme  difficulty  of 
procuring  workmen  and  proper  materials  in  Georgia  pre- 
vented my  completing  the  larger  one  until  some  time  in 
April  last." 

The  attention  of  the  South  was  at  once  aroused.  Crowds 
that  were  denied  admission  to  the  invention  until  it  was 
patented  broke  open  the  house  in  which  it  was,  carried 
away  the  model,  and  reproduced  it,  so  that  thousands  of 
planters  commenced  using  it  without  even  as  much  as 
"by  your  leave"  to  Whitney.  And  even  associations 
arose  to  protect  users  against  Whitney's  prosecution.  As 
there  seemed  to  be  little  chance  of  manufacturing  in  the 
South,  Whitney  returned  to  New  Haven,  and  commenced 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  105 

the  manufacture  with  Phineas  Miller,  who  May  27,  1793, 
had  entered  partnership  with  him.  The  planters  of  the 
South  showed  no  intention  of  admitting  Whitney's  right  to 
his  invention,  and  for  a  number  of  years  Whitney  and 
Miller  sought  in  vain  to  secure  returns  for  their  work. 

A  formidable  obstacle  was  the  belief  by  English  mill 
owners  that  the  cotton  gin  ruined  the  cotton  fibre  by  making 
it  too  brittle,  and  it  was  with  great  difficulty  that  this  belief 
was  overcome.  It  was  not  until  after  1800  that  Whitney 
was  able  to  obtain  a  recognition  from  the  Southern  planters 
of  his  rights,  and  finally  he  secured  a  grant  of  fifty  thousand 
dollars. 

North  Carolina  and  Tennessee  both  fixed  a  tax  of  two 
shillings,  sixpence,  on  every  saw  for  ginning  cotton  for  five 
years,  the  annual  collection  being  paid  to  WTiitney,  but  the 
government  refused  to  renew  his  patent  in  1812,  so  that  he 
never  realized  the  amount  to  which  his  invention  entitled 
him. 

His  partner  died  a  disappointed  man,  and  in  1798  Whitney 
turned  his  attention  to  the  manufacture  of  firearms,  estab- 
lishing a  plant  for  the  purpose  of  making  a  lathe  and  all 
the  necessary  machinery  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Whitney. 
The  government  encouraged  him  with  an  order  for  ten 
thousand  muskets  and  advanced  him  twenty  thousand 
dollars.  It  was  not  until  1817  that  Whitney  saw  the  end 
of  his  financial  troubles.  He  married  the  youngest  daughter 
of  Judge  Edwards,  of  the  United  States  Circuit  Court,  who 
was  a  direct  descendant  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  and  died  in 
New  Haven,  at  the  age  of  sixty  years,  on  Jan.  8,  1825. 


IMPROVEMENTS     OF     THE     BASIC     MACHINES,    AND    FURTHER 

INVENTIONS. 

Cartwright's  loom  was  the  last  of  the  basic  inventions 
which  wrought  such  a  change  in  the  textile  industry.  Most 
of  the  machinery  used  in  the  textile  mills  to-day  involves 


106  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

the  principles  of  these  early  inventions,  though  many  of 
the  details  have  been  improved  and  modified  and  addi- 
tional parts  have  been  added  that  have  greatly  increased 
the  labor  saving  as  well  as  the  productive  capacity  of  the 
machines. 

Owing  to  the  opposition  of  the  English  workmen  who 
thought  that  invention  would  deprive  them  of  their  liveli- 
hood and  also  the  necessity  of  stopping  the  loom  to  dress 
the  warp,  it  was  some  years  before  Cartwright's  loom  was 
put  into  much  use.  The  best  authorities  are  of  the  opinion 
that  power  looms  were  adopted  at  first  more  rapidly  in 
Scotland  than  in  England,  because  in  1811  they  were  in  use 
in  Scotland;  while  it  is  quite  certain  that  in  1813  power 
looms  had  not  been  much  adopted  in  England. 

In  1794  a  power  loom  was  invented  by  John  Bell,  of  Glas- 
gow, which  was  soon  abandoned,  and  June  6,  1796,  Robert 
Miller,  of  the  same  city,  took  out  a  patent  for  another 
loom,  which  John  Monteith  adopted  in  1801,  and  equipped 
a  mill  at  Glasgow  with  two  hundred  looms.  Still  another 
loom  was  invented  by  Mr.  Toad,  of  Bolton,  in  1803.  The 
loom  which  William  Horrocks,  of  Stockport,  England,  pat- 
ented in  1803,  1805,  and  improved  in  1813,  was  the  first 
to  come  into  general  use,  and  was  known  as  the  crank,  or 
Scotch,  loom.  It  was  probably  the  kind  that  Francis  C. 
Lowell,  of  Boston,  saw,  and  which  led  to  his  working  out 
later  the  first  practical  loom  in  America,  the  story  of  which 
is  told  later.  As  early  as  1806  T.  M.  Mussey  had  built  a 
loom  at  Exeter,  N.H.,  which  would  weave,  but  was  not 
practical  commercially. 

The  dressing  machine,  out  of  which  grew  the  dandy 
loom,  that  was  necessary  to  the  economical  operation  of 
the  loom,  was  worked  out  by  Thomas  Johnson,  of  Bred- 
bury,  an  ingenious  weaver  in  the  employ  of  Messrs.  Rad- 
cliffe  and  Ross,  of  Stockport,  England.  William  Radcliffe, 
who  was  alarmed  by  the  exportation  of  cotton  yarn, 
conceived  that  the  only  way  to  prevent  the  exportation 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  107 

was  for  the  English  to  excel  in  weaving.  He  finally,  on 
Jan.  2,  1802,  called  about  him  a  number  of  his  workmen, 
among  whom  was  Thomas  Johnson,  an  ingenious  but  dissi- 
pated young  man,  and  explained  to  them  his  needs.  So 
versatile  were  Johnson's  expedients  to  compass  the  re- 
quired invention  that  his  fellow-workmen  called  him  the 
conjurer.  Johnson's  ability  and  Radcliffe's  perseverance 
produced  the  ingenious  dandy  loom,  by  which  the  warp 
could  be  dressed  before  it  was  put  on  the  loom,  and  pro- 
vided for  the  taking  up  of  the  cloth  and  drawing  forward 
of  the  warp,  so  that  the  loom  did  not  have  to  be  stopped 
for  the  cloth  to  be  moved  on.  The  warp  was  thus  brought 
within  play  of  the  shuttle. 

Radcliffe  and  his  partner,  Ross,  in  1803  and  1804  took 
out  patents  for  taking  up  the  cloth  by  motion  of  the  lathe, 
and  also  for  new  methods  of  warping  and  dressing.  The 
patents  were  taken  out  in  the  name  of  Johnson,  their  em- 
ployee, who  received  a  bonus  of  fifty  pounds.  English 
manufacturers  were  slow  to  take  up  the  loom.  Little  by 
little,  after  Horrocks's  invention,  power  looms  were  grad- 
ually adopted.  In  1806  a  factory  for  steam  looms  was 
built  at  Manchester,  according  to  Guest,  and  soon  after 
two  others  were  erected  at  Stockport,  while  in  1809  a  fourth 
was  completed  at  West  Houghton.  In  1818  at  Manchester 
and  the  neighborhood  there  were  but  fourteen  factories, 
containing  about  two  thousand  looms,  and  in  1821  thirty- 
two  factories,  containing  5,732  looms. 

It  is  impossible  to  more  than  briefly  indicate  the  other 
improvements  since  the  day  of  Crompton.  The  later 
improvements  and  many  of  the  most  essential  modifications 
have  been  the  work  of  American  inventors,  who  with  true 
Yankee  ingenuity  took  the  basic  English  machines,  elimi- 
nated their  weak  points  and  strengthened  their  good  ones, 
adding  a  part  here  and  a  part  there,  until  the  automatic 
power  loom,  as  finally  worked  out  in  the  Northrop  loom 
under  the  direction  of  the  Draper  Company,  became  an 


108  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

accomplished  fact  and  is  the  last  word  in  the  history  of 
textile  machinery. 

James  Davenport,  an  American  mechanic,  received, 
Feb.  14,  1794,  on  his  carding  and  spinning  machines  the 
first  patent  in  the  United  States  for  any  kind  of  textile 
machinery.  He  established  at  the  Globe  Mills,  at  the 
north  end  of  Second  Street,  Philadelphia,  one  of  the  ear- 
liest manufactories  for  weaving  flax,  hemp,  and  tow  by 
water  power.  The  labor  was  supplied  by  boys,  who  were 
able  to  spin  in  a  day  of  ten  hours  290  feet  of  flax  or  hemp, 
and  one  boy  could  deliver  fifteen  to  twenty  yards  of  sail 
cloth  a  day. 

Davenport  went  in  1797  to  Boston  to  sell  machinery, 
but  was  not  successful,  and  died  soon  afterwards.  The 
Globe  machinery  was  sold  in  such  small  lots  it  was  im- 
possible to  put  it  together  again.  The  looms  said  to  have 
been  used  preceded,  it  is  claimed,  by  many  years  any 
other  efforts  to  turn  out  a  practical  power  loom. 

One  of  the  most  important  improvements  worked  out 
in  this  country  is  that  of  the  Compound  Gear,  by  which 
Mr.  Asa  Arnold,  of  Rhode  Island,  succeeded  in  combining 
the  train  of  three  bevel  wheels  so  as  to  regulate  the  variable 
velocity  needed  for  winding  the  filaments  of  cotton  on  the 
bobbin  of  the  roving  frame.  Although  the  invention  was 
put  in  operation  in  1822,  the  patent  was  not  taken  out 
until  Jan.  21,  1823.  A  model  of  this  invention  was  taken 
to  Manchester  in  1825,  and  an  Englishman,  Henry  Houlds- 
worth,  Jr.,  appropriated  it,  taking  out  his  own  English 
patent  for  the  English  Equation  Box.  It  was  not  known 
for  some  time  that  Arnold  was  the  real  inventor,  and  he 
did  not,  therefore,  secure  the  pecuniary  advantage  that 
should  have  been  his. 

The  Danforth,  or  cap,  spinner  was  the  invention  of 
Charles  Danforth,  of  Paterson,  N.J.,  and  he  secured  patents 
Sept.  2,  1828.  Here,  again,  an  Englishman,  John  Hutchin- 
son,  of  Liverpool,  appropriated  the  idea  in  1830  by  patent- 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  109 

ing  it,  and  the  invention  came  into  wide  use  in  England 
and  Europe,  particularly  for  spinning  the  weft,  or  filling, 
before  the  later  improvements  in  the  self-acting  mule.  The 
Taunton  speeder,  so  called  from  its  place  of  origin  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, was  the  work  of  George  Danforth,  of  Massachu- 
setts. This,  which  was  also  known  as  the  tube  frame,  was 
patented  Sept.  2,  1824.  English  patents  for  the  same  thing 
were  taken  out  for  a  Mr.  Dyer,  of  Manchester,  in  1825. 
The  Taunton  speeder  was  adopted  to  a  considerable  extent 
hi  England  hi  place  of  the  fly  frame. 

Gilbert  Brewster,  of  Poughkeepsie,  N.Y.,  invented  an- 
other roving  frame  in  1829,  in  which  a  temporary  twist 
was  given  to  the  roving  during  the  passage  from  rolls  to 
spools  by  passing  the  roving  between  two  leather  bands, 
or  belts,  moving  in  opposite  directions.  This  was  known 
as  the  Eclipse  Speeder,  and  was  used  for  some  time  because 
of  the  small  cost  of  the  machine  and  the  large  amount  of 
work  it  could  produce.  It  gave  place  to  the  roving  frame 
with  the  "equation  box"  or  "compound"  movement,  either 
in  the  form  of  the  "fly  frame"  or  "speeder,"  the  latter 
name  being  applied  to  those  frames  in  which  the  arms  of 
the  flier  are  connected  at  the  bottom  and  are  independent 
of  the  spindle.  This,  too,  was  introduced  into  Manchester 
with  great  success  in  1835,  and  there  was  known  as  the 
Eclipse  Roving  Machine. 

In  1829  Addison  and  Stevens,  of  New  York,  took  out  a 
patent  for  a  traveller,  or  wire  loop,  sliding  around  on  a 
single  ring,  and  from  this  the  present  form  of  ring  spinning 
has  been  derived  and  has  been  adopted  by  all  large  makers. 
To  America  was  also  due  the  invention  of  the  plate  speeder. 
The  stop-motion  in  the  drawing-frame  was  invented  by 
Samuel  Batchelder  in  1832.  By  it  loss  of  tune  was  pre- 
vented by  stopping  the  machine  to  fix  breakage  of  the 
thread,  and  the  speed  of  the  machines  could  be  greatly 
increased.  No  patent  was  taken  out  for  it  in  this  country, 
but  the  inventor  derived  some  benefit  from  one  taken 


110  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

out  in  England  by  Henry  Houldsworth.  The  ring  spinner 
was  worked  out  by  John  Sharp,  of  Providence,  in  1831,  and 
with  later  improvements  came  into  extensive  use. 

To  Mr.  Paul  Moody,  who,  we  shall  later  learn,  was  one 
of  those  that  helped  to  start  the  first  complete  cotton  mill 
in  America,  is  due  the  distinction  of  the  introduction  at 
Lowell  in  1826  of  the  use  of  leather  belts  in  place  of  iron 
gears  for  transmitting  motion  to  the  main  shafting  of  a 
mill. 

Other  improvements  have  from  tune  to  time  been  added 
to  the  textile  machines.  The  last  of  importance  was  that 
of  the  Northrop  loom.  The  problem  of  an  automatic 
shuttle  changer  had  long  engaged  the  attention  of  George 
Draper  &  Sons,  the  predecessors  of  the  Draper  Company,  of 
Hopedale,  Mass.  In  July,  1888,  one  of  the  firm  investi- 
gated an  automatic  shuttle  changer  at  Providence,  R.I. 
Concluding  that  it  was  not  practical,  the  firm  set  aside  ten 
thousand  dollars,  and  started  an  inventor,  Mr.  Alonzo  E. 
Rhoades,  on  the  task  of  devising  a  practical  shuttle-chang- 
ing loom.  Mr.  Rhoades  by  Feb.  28,  1889,  had  a  loom 
ready  for  operation.  A  few  years  prior  to  this  time 
Mr.  James  H.  Northrop,  an  expert  English  mechanic,  had 
come  to  this  country  and  had  secured  work  at  Hopedale. 
He  invented  the  Northrop  spooler  guide  and  other  improve- 
ments in  cotton  machinery,  but  later  left  this  employment 
to  become  a  farmer.  As  farming  was  not  congenial,  he 
again  entered  the  Drapers'  employ  and  noting  the  work 
on  the  Rhoades  machine,  remarked  one  day  in  February, 
1889,  that,  if  given  a  chance,  he  could  put  a  shuttle  changer 
on  a  loom  in  one  week's  time  that  would  not  cost  over  a 
dollar.  On  March  5,  he  showed,  set  up  in  the  hen-house 
at  his  farm,  a  rough  wooden  model  of  his  idea.  This  so 
pleased  the  Drapers  that  Mr.  Northrop  was  set  to  work  on 
his  idea,  and  by  July  5,  1889,  he  had  completed  a  loom,  and 
on  October  24  of  the  same  year  a  Northrop  loom  was  in 
operation  at  the  Seaconnet  Mill  in  Fall  River;  and  by 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  111 

April,  1890,  several  filling  changing  looms  of  the  same  kind 
were  at  work  in  Seaconnet  Mill.  It  was  soon  found,  how- 
ever, that  the  ordinary  plain  looms  were  not  sufficiently 
uniform  to  be  adaptable  for  the  new  attachments,  and  the 
Drapers  set  about  designing  a  new  loom  that  would  incor- 
porate a  warp  stop-motion  with  the  filling-changer.  This 
entailed  several  years'  delay,  so  that  it  was  not  until  early 
in  1895  that  complete  Northrop  looms  were  started  in  mills 
of  customers. 

The  Northrop  loom  is  said  to  be  the  first  commercial 
loom  to  supply  filling  automatically;  the  first  loom  to  auto- 
matically supply  a  bobbin  or  cop  skewer  to  a  shuttle  and 
automatically  thread  the  same,  either  commercially  or  ex- 
perimentally; the  first  loom  to  incorporate  a  practical 
warp  stop-motion  for  general  weaving  application;  and  the 
first  loom  to  automatically  supply  itself  with  filling  before 
exhaustion  of  the  running  supply.  As  a  whole,  it  is  the 
first  to  do  away  with  the  right  and  left  hand  system,  and 
the  first  to  generally  adopt  the  high  roll  take-up. 


BLEACHING 

The  use  of  machinery  in  the  manufacturing  of  textiles  had 
an  immediate  effect  upon  bringing  about  improvements 
in  bleaching,  dyeing,  and  printing.  The  old  and  slow 
methods  used  in  these  chemical  processes  could  not  keep 
pace  with  the  increased  output  of  goods  turned  out  by  the 
new  methods  of  manufacturing,  but  soon  improvements  in 
the  process  of  bleaching,  dyeing,  and  printing  enabled 
this  branch  of  textile  making  to  meet  the  output  of  the 
manufacturing  processes.  The  agents  by  which  the  im- 
provements were  effected  were  powerful  chemicals,  and  the 
use  of  cylinder  printing  in  place  of  the  old  hand  block 
method  which  was  so  long  in  use. 

The  Chinese  and  Hindus  understood  bleaching,  and 
through  the  Arabs  and  Phoenicians  it  was  passed  on  to  the 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

Egyptians.  For  centuries  the  Phoenicians  were  famous 
for  their  purple  dyes,  and  the  tombs  of  the  Egyptians  attest 
the  knowledge  which  they  had  not  only  of  bleaching,  but 
of  dyeing  and  printing.  According  to  Pliny  different  plants 
and  ashes  of  plants  were  used  as  cleansers.  The  East  and 
Egypt  passed  the  knowledge  on  to  the  Greeks  and  Romans, 
though  of  their  processes  little  is  known,  as  the  records  of 
their  skill  in  this  respect  were  lost  when  the  barbarian 
hordes  in  the  early  centuries  of  the  Christian  era  overran 
the  Roman  Empire  and  Europe. 

It  is  impossible  to  see  just  where  the  industry  first  de- 
veloped in  Europe,  for  it  is  probable  that  in  Germany,  Hol- 
land, and  France  it  was  known  at  a  very  early  date.  The 
Dutch,  prior  to  the  seventeenth  century,  had  a  monopoly 
of  bleaching;  and  Haarlem  was  a  great  bleaching  centre. 
Brown  linen  made  in  Scotland  was  sent  in  March  to  Holland 
to  bleach,  and  returned  about  the  end  of  October. 

Bleaching  had  begun  in  England  prior  to  the  beginning 
of  the  sixteenth  century.  At  Southwark,  near  London, 
there  was  a  bleachery  about  1650.  Shakespeare  speaks 
of  the  "whiting  time"  or  "bleaching  period,"  and  those 
described  in  the  process  were  called  "whitsters."  The  old 
method  of  bleaching  was  using  first  sour  milk  and  cows' 
dung,  then  steeping  the  linen  in  waste  lye  and  for  a  week 
pouring  boiling  hot  potash  lye  over  it.  In  some  parts  of 
India  the  acid  of  lemons  was  used  instead  of  sour  milk, 
and  in  other  parts  buffaloes'  milk  was  used.  The  linen 
was  then  taken  out  and  washed  and  put  into  wooden  vats  of 
buttermilk,  in  which  under  pressure  the  goods  lay  for  five 
or  six  days.  The  linen  was  then  spread  on  grass  and  kept 
wet  for  several  months,  exposed  to  sunshine  and  rain.  This 
steeping  in  lyes  was  called  bucking,  while  the  bleaching 
on  the  grass  was  called  crofting. 

The  work  was  carried  on  in  the  open  air,  principally  in 
the  summer  time,  and  under  the  old  method  it  was  often 
from  six  to  eight  months,  especially  if  the  weather  was  un- 


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THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  113 

favorable,  before  the  bleaching  was  completed.  The  cus- 
tom of  outdoor  exposure  gave  rise  in  England,  and  in  parts 
of  the  Continent,  to  much  stealing  of  the  linen  thus  exposed, 
and  stringent  laws  to  prevent  it  were  passed  from  time  to 
time. 

An  enactment  of  George  II.  reads,  "Every  person  who 
shall  by  day  or  night  feloniously  steal  any  linen,  fustian, 
calico,  or  cotton  cloth;  or  cloth  worked,  woven,  or  made  of 
any  cotton  or  linen  yarn  mixed ;  or  any  linen  or  cotton  tape, 
inkle,  filleting,  laces,  or  any  fabric  laid  to  be  printed,  whit- 
ened, crofted,  bowked,  or  dried,  to  the  value  of  ten  shillings, 
or  shall  knowingly  buy  or  receive  any  such  wares  stolen, 
shall  be  guilty  of  felony  without  benefit  of  clergy,"  which 
was  punishable  by  death.  In  Switzerland,  in  order  to  pre- 
vent the  material  from  being  stolen,  they  still  go  so  far  as 
to  protect  it  at  night  with  dogs,  whose  small  houses  are 
placed  here  and  there  about  the  bleaching-yard. 

The  final  step  of  exposing  linen  to  the  sun  and  rain  is 
still  practised  in  Holland,  Ireland,  and  Switzerland  and 
other  parts  of  the  Continent,  where  the  spinning  of  flax  and 
the  making  of  the  best  linen  is  yet  a  handicraft.  No  chem- 
ical process  has  yet  been  found  that  will  bring  about  the 
purity  of  whiteness  obtained  by  the  natural  methods  of 
exposure. 

Scotland  early  gave  its  attention  to  bleaching.  In  1728, 
in  response  to  the  proposal  of  James  Adair,  of  Belfast,  to 
the  Scottish  Board  of  Manufacturers,  a  bleaching-field  was 
established  in  Galloway,  and  a  premium  of  two  thousand 
pounds  for  the  establishment  of  other  bleaching-fields 
throughout  the  country  was  granted.  In  1732  a  method 
of  bleaching  with  kelp  was  introduced  by  R.  Holden  from 
Ireland,  and  a  bleaching-field  was  set  out  near  Dundee, 
which  used  the  process. 

An  improvement  in  the  souring  of  cloth  was  made  by 
Dr.  Francis  Home,  of  Edinburgh,  to  whom  the  Board  of 
Trustees  of  the  Board  of  Manufacturers  paid  one  hundred 


114  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

pounds  for  his  experiments  in  bleaching.  This  was  the 
discovery  that  sulphuric  acid  could  be  used  to  great  advan- 
tage, instead  of  sour  milk,  in  the  acidulating  of  the  water. 
It  accomplished  the  souring  in  a  few  hours,  while  the  old 
method  occupied  days  and  weeks.  Although  sulphuric 
acid  worked  admirably,  bleachers  were  afraid  of  the  corro- 
sive effects  of  this  souring  process,  and  for  some  time  in 
Ireland  it  was  against  the  law  to  use  it,  although  in  1774 
Dr.  James  Ferguson,  of  Belfast,  had  received  a  premium  of 
three  hundred  pounds  from  the  Irish  Linen  Board  for  the 
application  of  lime  in  bleaching  linen. 

The  greatest  improvement  in  the  process  was  the  dis- 
covery in  1774  by  C.  W.  Scheele,  the  Swedish  chemist, 
that  chlorine  destroyed  vegetable  colors.  This  discovery 
was  due  to  his  accidental  observation  of  the  bleaching  of 
the  cork  of  the  bottle  which  contained  his  chlorine,  a  gas- 
eous substance  contained  in  salt.  The  fact  attracted  the 
attention  of  the  French  chemist,  Claude  Louis  Berthollet, 
who  applied  chlorine  with  great  success  to  the  bleaching 
of  fabrics.  Berthollet  read  a  paper  before  the  Academy 
of  Science  in  Paris,  April,  1785,  which  was  published  in 
the  Journal  de  Physique,  in  which  he  gave  the  result  of 
his  success  in  bleaching  cloth. 

He  showed  the  experiments  in  1786  to  James  Watt,  the 
inventor,  who  was  also  a  chemist  and  who  instituted  simi- 
lar experiments  in  England.  Watt  used  chlorine  on  the 
bleach-field  of  his  father-in-law,  Mr.  Macgregor,  near 
Glasgow  in  March,  1787,  and  this  was  probably  the  first 
time  that  the  chlorine  process  was  used  in  England.  The 
process  was  made  known  by  Professor  Patrick  Copeland,  of 
Aberdeen,  to  Gordon,  Barron  &  Co.  of  that  city,  and  was 
used  with  success  by  them. 

The  first  use  of  chlorine  was  attended  by  serious  disad- 
vantages, owing  to  the  injurious  and  obnoxious  odor  to 
which  the  process  gave  rise.  One  of  the  first  improvements 
was  the  use  of  eau  de  Javel,  which  was  first  used  at  the 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  115 

Javel  works  near  Paris.  Finally,  a  solution  of  potash,  one 
part  in  eight  of  water,  until  effervescence  began,  was  used. 
Scheele  and  Berthollet  had  used  muriatic  acid  and  man- 
ganese in  the  production  of  chlorine.  Watt  used  common 
salt,  black  oxide  of  manganese,  and  sulphuric  acid,  with 
which  he  impregnated  water  confined  in  air-tight  wooden 
vessels  lined  with  tar. 

Unaware  of  the  experiments  that  Watt  had  carried  on, 
Thomas  Henry,  of  Manchester,  began  experimenting  with 
chlorine,  and  was  so  successful  that  in  1788  he  bleached  a 
half-yard  of  calico  before  the  Manchester  bleachers.  So 
great  was  the  impression  made  on  the  bleachers  that  a  Mr. 
Ridgeway,  of  Horwich,  near  Bolton,  asked  to  be  instructed 
in  the  process,  and  the  improvements  effected  by  Mr. 
Ridgeway  and  his  sons  marked  the  beginning  of  the  modern 
methods  of  bleaching  in  England.  Mr.  Henry  and  Mr. 
Tenant  both  used  lime  for  depriving  the  liquid,  which  Watt 
used  in  bleaching,  of  its  obnoxious  odors,  and  Mr.  Charles 
Tenant  finally  evolved  a  saturated  solution  of  chloride  of 
lime  which  worked  perfectly  as  a  bleaching  agent,  this 
removing  this  difficulty. 

After  much  opposition  he  obtained  a  patent  in  1799  for 
saturating  slack  lime  in  a  dry  state  with  chloride,  and  the 
large  manufacturing  of  the  article  which  he  started  soon 
brought  it  into  extensive  use.  From  that  time  on  the 
process  of  bleaching  has  been  an  improvement  and  sim- 
plification of  the  old  method,  and  primarily  follows  that 
worked  out  by  these  Englishmen.  Many  minor  improve- 
ments have  come  from  Germany,  which,  with  France,  has 
adopted  many  of  the  English  and  American  inventions. 

Wool,  before  bleaching,  is  thoroughly  washed  with 
soap  and  soda  to  remove  the  grease  for  the  actual  bleaching, 
and  the  wool  or  the  scoured  yarn  is  treated  either  with 
sulphuric  acid  or  hydrogen  of  peroxide.  Cotton  and  wool 
can  be  bleached  in  a  very  much  shorter  time  than  can  linen, 
which  requires  about  six  weeks. 


116  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

DYEING 

Having  accomplished  the  bleaching,  the  fabric  is  ready  to 
be  either  dyed  or  printed.  As  a  rule,  wool  and  silk  are  dyed, 
while  cotton  is  printed.  The  process  of  dyeing,  like  others 
of  the  textile  industry,  is  prehistoric,  for  fugitive  stains, 
juices  of  fruits,  decoctions  of  flowers,  leaves,  barks,  and 
roots,  and  later  on  the  use  of  different  kinds  of  earths  which 
contained  iron  and  aluminum  by  which  the  stains  were  made 
permanent  were  in  use  before  man  thought  of  commemorat- 
ing his  deeds.  It  was  originally  a  home  industry,  being 
practised  with  more  perfection  in  Persia,  India,  China,  and 
Egypt  than  elsewhere  at  the  beginning  of  ancient  history. 

It  was  introduced  into  Egypt  by  the  Arabian  and  Phoe- 
nician traders.  We  know  that  the  Phoenician  purple  was 
a  royal  color  in  the  Biblical  days  and  even  farther  back 
than  this,  for  it  is  to  be  found  in  the  earliest  tombs.  Pliny 
tells  how  Egypt,  in  the  first  century,  carried  on  the  process, 
and  shows  that  the  use  of  indigo  was  understood  by  the 
Egyptians.  The  Alexandrians  and  Phoenicians  exported 
their  dye-stuffs  to  Greece  and  Rome.  But  history  is  not 
clear  as  to  what  degree  the  Greeks  and  Romans  under- 
stood the  art  of  dyeing,  because  the  barbaric  hordes  which 
overran  Europe  at  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era  de- 
stroyed the  records. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  mediaeval  era  the  art  had  sprung 
up  in  Italy,  and  was  due  to  the  importation  of  Oriental 
products  by  the  Venetian  merchants.  From  Venice  the 
art  spread  to  Florence,  for  we  find  the  Florentine  Rucellai, 
about  the  thirteenth  century,  had  rediscovered  the  ancient 
method  of  making  purple  dye  from  certain  lichens  of  Asia 
Minor.  The  first  European  book  to  contain  an  account 
of  the  process  in  use  in  the  Middle  Age  was  published  at 
Venice  in  1429  under  the  title  "Mariegola  dell'  arte  de 
tentori." 

The  Italians  taught  the  process  to  Germany,  France, 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  117 

Switzerland,  and  Flanders;  and  from  Flanders  England 
secured  the  beginning  of  its  knowledge,  for  Edward  III. 
procured  dyers  from  Flanders,  and  in  1472  incorporated  the 
Dyers'  Company  in  London.  The  discovery  of  America 
in  1492,  and  the  early  voyages  of  the  French,  Portuguese, 
and  Spaniards  to  East  India  by  way  of  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope,  introduced  new  dyestuffs,  and  the  trade  in  these 
goods  was  soon  transferred  from  Italy  to  Spain  and  Portu- 
gal for  the  East  Indian  products  which  came  by  way  of  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope  and  for  the  American  products,  such  as 
cochineal,  that  came  from  Central  and  South  America. 

With  the  spread  of  the  knowledge  of  dyeing,  the  culti- 
vation of  dye-plants  soon  began  in  Europe,  particularly 
in  Holland,  France,  and  Germany.  These  countries  began 
the  cultivation  of  dye-plants  in  1507.  Spaniards  in  1518 
began  importation  of  red  cochineal  from  Mexico  and  Peru. 
The  Dutch  chemist  Drebels'  discovery  in  1630  of  a  method 
of  dyeing  wool  scarlet  with  cochineal  led  to  the  spread  of 
scarlet  dyeing  through  Europe.  It  was  carried  on  with 
much  success  by  the  Gobelin  Dye  Works  at  Paris  in  1643, 
and  at  the  dye  works  in  Bow,  England,  in  1662. 

The  Royal  Society  of  London  printed  in  1662  the  first 
English  account  of  the  dyeing  processes,  under  the  title 
"An  Apparatus  to  the  History  of  the  Common  Practice 
of  Dyeing  to  Assist  Dyers."  In  1672  Colbert,  minister  of 
France,  published  instruction  in  dyeing  for  the  use  of 
woolen  manufacturers  in  France.  The  French  government 
appointed  noted  French  chemists  to  study  the  dyeing 
processes  and  also  the  problem  of  manufacturing,  and  from 
1700  to  1825  many  French  scientists  commenced  work 
on  the  problem  of  dyeing,  the  most  famous  of  these  being 
Dufay,  Hellot,  Macquer,  Berthollet,  Board,  and  Chevreul. 

Prussian  blue  was  worked  out  in  1770;  Saxony  blue,  or 
indigo  extract,  1740;  sulphuric  acid,  1774;  murexide,  in 
1776;  picric  acid,  in  1788;  carbonate  of  soda,  in  1793;  and 
bleaching  powder,  in  1789. 


118  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

The  practical  side  of  dyeing  was  being  worked  out  by 
a  number  of  men  who  were  evolving  the  machinery  for 
its  proper  handling.  These  were  Thomas  Henry,  Home, 
and  Bancroft  in  England;  and  in  France,  Dambourney, 
Confraville,  and  others.  The  aniline  process  quite  revo- 
lutionized methods  of  dyeing,  and  was  due  to  the  discovery 
in  1834  by  a  German  chemist,  Runge,  who  noticed  that  an 
aniline  product  distilled  from  coal  tar  gave  a  bright  blue 
coloration  under  the  influence  of  the  bleaching  powder. 

But  nothing  was  done  until  1856,  when  Sir  W.  H.  Perkins 
applied  the  discovery  with  success  to  fabrics,  and  soon 
the  aniline  dyes,  such  as  magenta,  aniline  blue,  Hoffman's 
violet,  and  others,  were  worked  out.  It  was  found  that 
many  of  the  distillations  of  coal-tar  products,  such  as  ben- 
zine, naphthaline,  and  others,  yielded  beautiful  dyes,  and 
little  by  little  vegetable  dyes  in  Europe  were  superseded 
by  aniline  coloring  matter,  so  that  by  1858  aniline  colors 
were  largely  in  use. 

Graebe  and  Lebermann,  German  chemists,  in  1869  se- 
cured alizarine,  the  coloring  matter  of  madder  root,  from 
anthracene,  the  first  artificial  production  of  vegetable 
dyes.  Artificial  indigo  was  worked  out  by  Basyer  in  1878. 
Since  then  many  coloring  products  have  been  discovered, 
so  the  aniline  process  has  largely  taken  the  place  of  vege- 
table matters  wherever  the  aniline  colors  have  been  found 
to  be  permanent.  The  fugitive  nature  of  aniline  dyes  has 
precluded,  however,  the  use  of  some  of  them  where  fast 
colors  have  been  desired. 

During  the  evolution  of  the  dyeing  process,  work  was 
under  way  in  the  perfection  of  vats,  boilers,  and  the  neces- 
sary machinery  for  dyeing,  so  that  by  the  time  the  dyeing 
process  was  brought  to  its  present  perfection  the  ma- 
chinery needed  for  the  proper  distillation  of  dyes  was  at 
hand. 

The  process  of  dyeing  has  not  been  determined  positively 
either  as  a  physical  or  chemical  process.  It  is  based  upon 


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THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  119 

the  affinity  between  the  fibre  of  the  fabric  and  the  color. 
Wool  is  very  much  more  readily  dyed  than  cotton,  and 
silk  occupies  an  intermediate  position.  In  many  instances, 
cotton  requires  the  use  of  a  metallic  base  to  form  the  agent 
by  which  the  dyestuff  can  fix  itself  to  the  cotton  fabric. 
When  once  the  dye  has  become  fixed,  either  in  wool,  cotton, 
silk,  or  linen,  the  perfection  of  the  process  is  measured  by 
the  degree  to  which  the  dye  is  unaffected  either  by  light  or 
water. 

PRINTING 

Textile  printing  originated  in  China  and  India;  also  was 
practised  by  the  Incas  of  Peru,  Chile,  and  Mexico  previous 
to  the  Spanish  invasion  of  1519.  The  Chinese  used  en- 
graved wooden  blocks,  as  did  also  the  Egyptians.  To 
them  the  process  of  printing  was  made  known  by  the 
Phoenicians  and  Arab  traders. 

Textile  printing  came  into  Europe  in  two  ways, — by 
land  and  by  sea.  The  great  caravan  routes  through  Persia 
and  Asia  Minor  brought  it  to  the  southern  part  of  Europe, 
while  the  Phoenicians  brought  the  knowledge  of  the  process 
from  the  Asiatic  shores  by  way  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope. 
It  was  introduced  into  England  in  1676  by  a  French  refugee, 
who  opened  on  the  Thames  at  Richmond  what  are  said 
to  have  been  the  first  print  works  in  England,  and  certainly 
the  first  print  works  of  which  we  have  any  definite  record, 
although  printing  was  early  carried  on  in  France  and 
Germany.  A  district  about  Auersburg  was  famous  for 
its  printing  of  linen.  Calico  printing  spread  more  rapidly 
in  France,  Germany,  Switzerland,  and  Austria  than  in 
England.  France  was  noted  for  a  long  time  for  the  ex- 
cellence of  its  calico  printing  and  the  refinement  of  its  de- 
signs. In  1738  calico  printing  was  being  practised  in  Scot- 
land. Messrs.  Clayton,  of  Bamberg  Bridge,  near  Preston, 
established  the  first  plant  in  Lancashire  in  1764. 

The  oldest  process  of  printing  was  by  hand  blocks.     It 


120  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

was  originally  practised  in  the  East.  In  some  sections 
it  is  still  in  use.  It  is  a  method  of  printing  in  which  a 
number  of  wooden  blocks  of  different  grains  are  placed 
one  upon  the  other,  so  that  the  grain  of  each  block  runs  in 
a  transverse  direction  to  the  grain  of  the  upper  or  lower 
block.  The  design  is  then  cut  upon  the  face  of  this  built- 
up  block,  each  color  having  a  separate  design  cut  in  such  a 
way  upon  the  built-up  block  that,  when  the  printing  takes 
place  by  means  of  the  different  blocks,  each  color  will  reg- 
ister with  the  next.  This  is  the  process  by  which  the  handi- 
craft printing  is  still  carried  on  in  many  sections. 

Perrotine  printing  was  originated  by  Perrot,  of  Rouen, 
in  1834.  He  set  his  blocks  in  machines  which  did  automat- 
ically the  printing  formerly  done  by  hand. 

Engraved,  or  plate,  printing  was  discovered  by  Bell  in 
1770,  and  resulted  in  the  use  of  an  engraved  color  plate 
for  printing  instead  of  wooden  blocks,  though  wooden 
blocks  are  in  use  in  some  parts  of  Switzerland.  The  im- 
proved method  of  printing  gave  way  to  roller,  or  cylinder, 
printing,  which  was  also  worked  out  by  Bell  in  1785,  and 
which  is  the  process  generally  used  to-day.  Adam  Parkin- 
son, of  Manchester,  evolved  a  method  for  keeping  the  roller 
in  register  so  that  one  color  could  be  easily  printed  upon 
another,  and  with  slight  improvements  this  is  the  method 
by  which  fabrics  of  cotton,  wool,  or  linen,  are  printed  to- 
day. 

MERCERIZING   PROCESS 

The  Mercerizing  Process,  discovered  in  1844  by  John 
Mercer,  a  calico  printer  of  Lancashire,  England,  is  closely 
analogous  to  the  dyeing  process,  though  mercerizing  gives 
either  a  crepon  effect  or  the  high  lustre  of  silk.  It  was 
found  by  Mercer  that,  when  a  piece  of  bleached  calico  was 
immersed  in  caustic  soda,  it  not  only  changed  in  appear- 
ance, but  became  stiff  and  translucent.  Upon  being  washed 
in  running  water  it  apparently  returned  to  its  original 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

condition.  But  a  more  careful  examination  showed  that 
the  fabric  was  not  only  stronger,  but  the  fibre  had  be- 
come more  rounded,  the  central  cavity  smaller,  and  the 
fibre  had  a  greater  affinity  for  coloring  matter.  The  process 
had  little  commercial  success  on  account  of  the  expense 
due  to  the  cost  of  the  caustic  soda  needed  and  also  because 
of  the  shrinkage  which  took  place  in  the  cloth.  It  was  re- 
vived in  1890-91  to  secure  a  permanent  crimp,  or  "crepon," 
effect  on  fabrics.  Depoully,  a  Frenchman,  had  improved 
the  process  in  1884,  so  that  a  crimped  effect  could  be  given 
to  goods  of  wool  or  silk  or  cotton. 

The  process  was  made  commercially  successful  by  the 
discovery  of  H.  A.  Lowe  in  1889  and  1890  of  a  method  of 
giving  the  silk  lustre.  As  he  allowed  his  patents  to  lapse, 
Thomas  and  Prevost  repatented  his  invention  in  1895,  and 
the  public  interest  was  thereby  aroused,  although  the 
patents  were  annulled  on  the  grounds  of  Lowe's  previous 
patents  and  the  wide  commercial  use  of  the  process. 

The  mercerizing  process  is  done  in  two  ways.  In  one 
the  cotton  stretched  tight  is  washed  in  caustic  soda,  and 
while  still  stretched  is  washed  clean  in  water.  After  the 
required  degree  of  washing  has  taken  place,  the  cotton  is 
relaxed,  and  it  is  found  to  have  acquired  a  permanent 
lustre. 

In  the  second  method  the  cotton  is  first  immersed  in  the 
caustic  soda  and  is  then  removed,  and,  after  being  stretched 
beyond  its  original  length,  is  washed  until  the  tension 
lessens.  In  the  yarn  the  best  lustre  is  obtained  from  the 
two  or  multifold  long  staple  fibre.  Yarn  is  mercerized 
either  in  the  hank  or  the  warp,  and  in  either  case  is  stretched 
on  rollers.  When  mercerized  hi  the  piece,  the  fabric  is 
stretched  before  it  has  the  soda  bath,  and  is  subsequently 
sprayed  from  pipes,  dipped  into  diluted  sulphuric  acids, 
and  finally  washed  with  water.  The  lustre  seems  to  be 
produced  by  the  reflection  of  light  from  the  lustrous  surface 
of  the  bands  of  twisted  cotton  fibre. 


CHAPTER  V 

AMERICAN   INDUSTRY   BEFORE    THE   REVOLUTION 

AMERICAN  INDUSTRY — EARLIEST  TRACES  OF  THE  INDUSTRY FOS- 
TERING LEGISLATION — FIRST  CLOTH  MADE  AND  FIRST  MILL 
ERECTED  AT  ROWLEY — SLAVE  TRAFFIC  AND  IMPORTATIONS — 
ENGLISH  EFFORTS  TO  HAMPER  THE  INDUSTRY — FIRST  WORSTED 
MILL — SKILL  ATTAINED  IN  TEXTILE  WORK — BOUNTIES  AND  MO- 
NOPOLIES TO  STIMULATE  THE  INDUSTRY — THE  SPINNING  CRAZE 
— APPROACH  OF  THE  REVOLUTION — IMPROVEMENTS  IN  ENGLISH 
TEXTILE  MACHINERY — CONDITION  OF  THE  MARKET  IMME- 
DIATELY AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION — AMERICAN  EFFORT  TO  SE- 
CURE ENGLISH  MACHINES — ENGLAND  AND  COTTON — STARTING 

OF  COTTON  CULTIVATION  IN  THE  SOUTH ORIGIN  OF  SEA  ISLAND 

COTTON  AND  BEGINNING  OF  ITS  CULTIVATION  IN  THE   SOUTH. 

In  America  the  textile  industry  began  almost  as  soon  as 
the  first  settlers  landed.  Its  rapid  development  was  due 
to  the  fact  that  many  of  the  first  settlers  came  from  a  part 
of  England  where  a  knowledge  of  spinning  and  weaving 
was  known  in  every  rural  household,  and  not  a  few  who 
came  to  New  England  brought  spinning  wheels  and  hand 
looms.  The  distance  from  the  old  country  threw  the 
New  England  settlers  largely  upon  their  own  resources, 
and  the  severity  of  the  climate  necessitated  the  warmest 
clothing,  so  that  the  colonists  early  instituted  the  industry 
of  spinning  at  home. 

The  religious  persecutions  which  had  so  much  to  do  with 
the  settlement  of  the  Plymouth  Colony  continued  for 
twenty  years,  and  thus  kept  up  a  constant  stream  of  immi- 
gration to  the  colonies;  but,  when  the  Long  Parliament 
in  1640  stopped  these  persecutions,  the  intercourse  with 
the  mother  country  not  only  decreased,  but  the  importation 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  123 

by  the  colonies,  of  goods,  particularly  textiles,  diminished, 
and  the  settlers  were  obliged  to  provide  for  their  own 
wants.  The  wool  used  by  the  settlers  came  from  Bilboa 
or  Malaga  or  was  grown  upon  the  few  native  sheep,  the 
forbears  of  which  were  brought  from  England  soon  after 
the  first  settlers  arrived.  In  all  the  colonies  there  were 
but  one  thousand  sheep  in  1642. 

EARLIEST  TRACES  OF  THE  INDUSTRY 

In  1638  spinning  wheels  were  valued  at  three  shillings. 
One  of  the  earliest  records  in  the  Probate  Court  of  Suffolk 
County  of  Massachusetts  speaks  in  1639  of  four  yards 
of  home-made  cloth  at  six  shillings,  twopence.  We  have 
further  evidence  in  Peter  Branch's  inventory  in  1639,  where 
home-made  cloth  is  specifically  mentioned,  that  spinning 
and  weaving  had  begun  thus  early.  And  at  this  early 
date  mills  for  grinding  grain,  driven  by  water  or  wind, 
and  which  were  to  furnish  the  site  for  many  a  fulling  mill 
and  spinning  or  weaving  establishment,  dotted  the  lands  of 
Plymouth,  the  Bay  Colony,  and  Connecticut.  Trade  was 
opened  about  1636  with  the  West  Indies  for  cotton  and 
rum,  in  exchange  for  which  the  Massachusetts  settlers 
sent  Indians,  and  later  negro  slaves. 

One  of  the  first  ships  to  bring  a  large  supply  of  cotton 
to  the  colonies  was  the  "Desire"  of  Salem,  the  biggest 
ship  of  her  time,  which  landed  her  cargo  in  1638  at  the  port 
from  which  she  hailed.  The  first  ship  to  bring  cotton 
to  Boston  was  the  "Trial,"  and  she  landed  a  cargo  in  Bos- 
ton soon  afterwards,  from  St.  Christopher's  Island  of  the 
West  Indies. 

Many  other  interesting  facts  relating  to  this  period  may 
be  found  among  the  Proceedings  of  the  National  Associa- 
tion of  Cotton  Manufacturers,  compiled  by  its  secretary. 


124  THE  STORY  OP  TEXTILES 

FOSTERING  LEGISLATION 

The  colonial  legislatures  soon  gave  the  industry  favorable 
attention,  passing  acts  compelling  the  practice  of  spinning 
and  weaving,  directing  the  planting  of  flax  and  the  raising 
of  sheep,  and  offering  bounties  for  the  production  of  fabrics. 
The  governing  body  of  the  Bay  State  Colony,  called  the 
General  Court  then  as  now,  as  early  as  1640  gave  a  helping 
hand  to  the  infant  industries  by  passing  two  orders.  The 
first  was  for  the  purpose  of  encouraging  the  manufacture 
of  linen,  and  directed  the  towns  to  see  what  seeds  were 
needed  for  the  growth  of  flax,  to  learn  what  persons  were 
skilful  at  breaking  and  in  the  use  of  wheels,  and  ordained 
that  boys  and  girls  be  taught  to  spin  yarn.  The  second 
order  offered  for  a  period  of  three  years  a  bounty  of  three- 
pence on  a  shilling  for  linen,  woolen,  or  cotton  cloth,  if 
spun  or  woven,  in  the  first  two  instances  of  wool  or  linen 
of  native  growth. 

The  solicitude  of  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts 
Bay  for  the  textile  industry  is  shown  in  the  order  dated  May 
13,  1640,  which  is  thought  by  the  best  authorities  to  be  the 
earliest  reference  in  New  England  by  the  General  Court 
to  the  manufacture  of  cloth : — 

"The  Court,  taking  into  series  consideration  the  ab- 
solute necessity  for  the  raising  of  the  manifacture  of  linnen 
cloth,  &c.,  doth  declare  that  it  is  the  intent  of  this  Court 
that  there  shall  bee  an  order  setled  about  it,  and  there- 
fore doth  require  the  magistrats  and  deputies  of  the  severall 
towns  to  acquaint  the  townesmen  therewith,  and  to  make 
inquiry  what  seed  is  in  every  town,  what  men  and  woomen 
are  skillful  in  the  braking,  spinning,  weaving;  what  means 
for  the  providing  of  wheeles;  and  to  consider  with  those 
skillful  in  that  manifacture,  what  course  may  be  taken 
to  raise  the  materials,  and  produce  the  manifacture,  and 
what  course  may  be  taken  for  teaching  the  boys  and  girls 
in  all  townes  the  spinning  of  the  yarn;  and  to  returne 


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THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  125 

to  the  next  Court  their  severall  and  joynt  advise  about 
this  thing.  The  like  consideration  would  bee  had  for  the 
spinning  and  weaveing  of  cotton  woole." 

The  slowness  of  the  importation  of  flax  led  the  General 
Court  in  1640  to  recommend  the  gathering  of  wild  hemp, 
which  had  been  used  by  the  Indians  for  rope  and  mat  mak- 
ing, and  twopence  per  pound  was  offered  for  it  by  many 
people.  This  native  hemp  had  originally  been  brought  from 
Connecticut  by  one  Oldham,  who  claimed  it  was  better 
than  English  hemp.  Although  it  raised  great  expectations 
among  the  colonists,  it  failed  to  fill  the  place  of  English 
hemp,  which  continued  to  be  a  regular  importation. 

Goodman  Nutt  and  others  in  1641  received  a  bounty 
of  twelvepence  per  yard  for  eighty-three  and  one-half 
yards  of  homespun,  which  was  probably  a  coarse  linen, 
and  this  is  the  first  mention  of  cloth  made  in  America. 
This  bounty  was  repealed  the  following  June.  The  General 
Assembly  of  Connecticut  in  1641  ordered  that  hemp  and 
flax  should  be  sown  by  each  family,  and  the  seed  preserved, 
"that  we  myght  in  tyme  haue  supply  of  lynnen  cloath 
amongst  ourselues";  Governor  Winthrop  of  Massachusetts 
ordered  that  runs  of  stone  where  corn  and  meal  could  be 
ground  be  established  on  all  available  water  sites;  and  many 
other  steps  were  taken  to  make  the  colonies  independent 
industrially  of  the  mother  country. 

Shortly  after  came  what  one  might  call  the  first  business 
panic,  for  John  Winthrop,  Jr.,  says  that  "corn  in  1641 
would  buy  nothing.  Many  men  had  gone  out  of  the  country, 
so  that  no  man  could  pay  his  just  debts,  nor  merchants 
make  returns  to  England  for  commodities,  and  commerce 
was  at  its  lowest."  It  doubtless  gave  a  new  impulse  to 
the  home  industries  through  the  necessity  of  supplying 
the  colonial  demand,  as  this  financial  condition  of  the  colony 
practically  precluded  trade  with  England. 

According  to  the  author  of  "New  England's  First  Fruits," 
written  at  Boston  in  1642,  "With  cotton  wooll  (which  we 


126  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

have  at  very  reasonable  rates  from  the  islands)  and  our 
linnen  yarne  we  can  make  dimities  and  fustians  for  our 
summer  cloathing;  and  having  a  matter  of  1000  sheepe 
which  prosper  well,  to  begin  withal,  in  a  competent  time 
we  hope  to  have  wollen  cloath  there  made." 

Home  spinning  impelled  by  the  necessities  of  the  settlers, 
and  encouraged  by  the  enactments  of  the  legislature,  in 
1643  filled  an  important  place  in  the  Puritan  industries, 
and  a  segregation  of  those  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of 
textiles  had  begun,  which  later  was  to  bear  fruit  in  the 
great  textile  centres  of  Massachusetts. 

FIRST    CLOTH    MADE    AND    FIRST    MILL    ERECTED    AT    ROWLEY 

Twenty  or  more  Yorkshire  families  had  settled  at  Rowley 
about  1638,  and  to  them  belongs  the  distinction  of  manu- 
facturing the  first  cloth  in  the  United  States,  as  well  as 
erecting  the  first  mill. 

According  to  Edward  Johnson's  book,  "Wonder-working 
Providences  of  Sion's  Saviour  in  New  England,"  published 
at  London,  1654,  "The  Lord  brought  over  the  zealous- 
affected  and  judicious  servant  of  His,  Master  Ezekiel 
Rogers,  with  an  holy  and  humble  people,  made  his  progress 
to  the  northeastward  and  erected  a  town  about  six  miles 
from  Ipswich  called  Rowley.  The  people,  being  very 
industrious  every  way,  soon  built  many  houses  to  the  num- 
ber of  about  three  score  families  and  were  the  first  people 
that  set  upon  making  cloth  in  this  western  world;  for  which 
end  they  built  a  fulling  mill  (1643)  and  caused  their  little 
ones  to  be  very  diligent  in  spinning  cotton-woole,  many  of 
them  having  been  clothiers  in  England  till  their  zeale  to 
promote  the  gospel  of  Christ  caused  them  to  wander." 

This  mill,  built  by  John  Pearson,  was  the  first  cloth  mill 
erected  in  the  United  States.  Rowley's  manufactures 
comprised  "cloath  and  rugs  of  cotton  wool,  and  also  sheeps' 
wool,"  showing  that  thus  early  cotton,  which  Columbus 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  127 

had  found  was  being  manufactured  into  breeches  by  the 
natives  of  the  West  Indies,  was  an  article  of  New  England 
manufacture. 

Because  of  the  fact  that  nearly  all  of  the  early  textile 
mills  were  located  in  the  upper  part  of  stone  water  mills, 
the  corn  being  ground  on  the  first  floor,  it  is  possible  to 
trace  back  to  these  water  rights  the  titles  of  some  of  the 
largest  textile  mills  in  New  England  to-day;  and  many  of 
the  old  deeds  refer  to  these  "runs  of  stone"  as  the  very 
beginning  of  their  rights.  The  proprietors  of  the  locks 
and  canals  on  the  Lowell  and  Merrimac  Rivers  maintain 
to  this  day  a  run  of  stone  grinding  the  grist  for  the  towns- 
people of  Lowell.  The  stones  are  in  the  old  grist-mill, 
corner  of  Ann  and  French  Streets,  and  the  old  locks  are 
near  the  Lowell  machine-shop  yard. 

SLAVE  TRAFFIC  AND  IMPORTATIONS 

One  of  the  reasons  for  the  early  commercial  relations 
between  the  Leeward  Islands  (especially  the  Barbadoes,  set- 
tled in  1623)  and  New  England  was  that  two  of  Governor 
Winthrop's  sons  settled  in  these  islands,  one  at  Barbadoes 
and  one  at  Antigua.  This  fact,  as  well  as  the  mutual  needs 
of  the  two  places,  early  led  to  commercial  intercourse,  and 
soon  a  steady  trade  was  in  progress.  The  importation  of 
cotton  and  rum  from  the  Barbadoes  by  the  Puritans  in- 
creased, and,  when  it  became  difficult  to  secure  Indian  slaves, 
the  Puritans  brought  negro  slaves  from  Africa,  and  sold 
them  to  the  West  Indians  in  place  of  the  Indians,  so  that 
New  England  was  not  only  the  first  to  promote  the  mer- 
chandising of  slaves  in  America,  but  later,  when  the  hei- 
nousness  of  the  traffic  appalled  the  New  England  conscience, 
New  England  was  also  the  first  to  take  steps  to  end  the 
traffic. 

The  wool  used  by  the  early  mills,  which  came  from  Spain 
and  England,  was  spun  into  yarn  by  the  neighboring  farmers, 


128  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

who  also  raised  the  sheep  that  supplied  the  domestic  wool. 
Efforts  were  made  to  raise  flax  and  hemp,  but,  to  meet  the 
colonial  demand,  it  had  to  be  imported  in  considerable 
quantities. 

The  colonies  all  along  the  Atlantic  coast  as  far  south  as 
Philadelphia,  soon  after  their  establishment,  realized  the 
necessity  of  extending  production  by  manufactures  which 
were  not  indigenous  to  the  country,  or  the  need  of  what 
is  now  known  as  protection  to  industry.  But  this  phase 
of  protection  took  the  shape  of  special  legislation  by  boun- 
ties and  relief  from  duties.  As  late  as  May  1,  1770,  the 
Essex  Gazette  of  Salem  printed  the  following: — 

"Last  Thursday  the  premium  of  four  guineas  on  the  best 
piece  of  Broad  Cloth,  bro't  to  Edes  &  Gill's  Printing  Office, 
in  Boston,  for  sale,  of  12  yards  long  and  7  quarters  wide, 
was  adjudged  to  Mr.  Toby,  Cambridge  &  Co.,  of  Lynn, 
who  from  the  1st  of  June,  1769,  to  May  1st,  1770,  have 
made  upwards  of  500  yards  of  Broad  Cloth,  and  upwards 
of  3000  yards  of  narrow  cloths  from  the  1st  of  June,  1769, 
to  the  1st  of  April,  1770." 

The  early  bounties  for  making  cloth  greatly  promoted 
the  growth  of  the  textile  industry,  and,  though  the  colonial 
enactments  were  soon  repealed,  the  industry  had  become 
so  firmly  established  by  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth 
century  that  wool  was  a  regular  article  of  merchandise, 
and  statutes  were  passed  by  the  Bay  State  colonies  pre- 
scribing that  it  should  be  washed  when  offered  for  sale. 


ENGLISH   EFFORTS  TO  HAMPER  THE  INDUSTRY 

Oliver  Cromwell,  the  stern  "protector"  of  England  from 
1653  to  1658,  watched  with  anxious  eye  the  effect  of  the 
colonial  textile  development  upon  England's  own  industry, 
and  soon  prohibited  the  export  of  sheep's  wool  and  woolen 
yarn  from  England.  This  act,  which  was  passed  Aug.  22, 
1654,  for  the  purpose  of  encouraging  the  raising  of  sheep 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  129 

in  England  as  well  as  to  prevent  the  exportation  of  wool 
from  England,  had  a  preamble  which  read  as  follows : — 

"Whereas,  this  countrie  is  at  this  tyme  in  great  straights 
in  respect  to  clothing  and  the  most  likeljest  way  tending 
to  our  supply  in  that  respect  is  the  rjsing  and  keeping 
of  sheepe  with  our  iurisdiction  and  in  detail  the  export- 
ing of  yews  is  forbidden  as  well  as  the  injunction  that 
none  shall  be  killed  until  they  are  two  years  old." 

One  of  the  results  of  these  stringent  restrictions  was 
a  marked  effect  on  colonial  sheep  raising,  for  in  1660  a 
report  was  made  by  the  English  consul  that  the  colonies 
not  only  had  one  hundred  thousand  sheep,  but  were  buying 
wool  from  the  Dutch.  Already  trade  had  begun  with  Spam 
for  wool  in  exchange  for  New  England  staves  and  salt 
fish. 

The  Massachusetts  General  Court  met  the  restriction  in 
1656  with  enactments  that  ordered  the  commons  to  be 
cleared  for  sheep,  rams  to  be  inspected,  and  hemp  and  flax 
seed  to  be  saved  and  sown.  The  selectmen  in  every  town 
were  directed  to  "turn  women,  girls,  and  boys  towards 
weaving,"  and  officials  were  required  "to  assess  each  family 
for  one  or  more  spinners  or  fractional  part,  that  every  one 
thus  assessed  do  after  this  present  year  1656  spin  for  thirty 
weeks  every  year  a  pound  per  week  of  lining  cotton  wool- 
ing  and  so  proportionately  for  halfe  or  quarter  spinners 
under  penalty  of  twelve  pence  for  each  pound  short." 

Classes  of  five,  six,  and  ten  in  number,  under  class  teach- 
ers, were  taught  spinning.  Already  in  1655  John  Pierpont 
and  others  "had  sett  down  a  bast  mill  or  under  shot  where 
the  old  mill  stood  in  Roxbury,"  and  the  same  year  he 
was  allowed  to  erect  a  fulling  mill.  The  competition  in 
1660  in  this  infant  industry  had  reached  a  condition  where 
cloth  was  being  cheapened  by  the  use  of  inferior  material, 
and  the  General  Court  took  cognizance  of  it  by  appointing 
a  commission  that  was  empowered  to  report  an  ordinance 
against  deceit  in  making  and  dressing  cloth.  Fulling 


130  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

mills  were  established  at  Watertown  in  1662,  Andover 
in  1673,  Ipswich  in  1675,  and  Barnstable  in  1687.  Not 
only  was  the  domestic  demand  for  dresses  of  tammies 
and  light  worsted  fabrics  as  well  as  that  for  men's  clothing 
being  met  by  the  Bay  Colony,  but  in  1675  wool  was 
exported  to  France  in  return  for  linen,  and  to  Spain  and 
Portugal  for  wine.  The  proficiency  of  the  Puritans  alarmed 
the  English  textile  workers,  especially  as  the  colonial 
export  trade  was  beginning  to  make  some  inroads  upon 
English  exports,  and  in  1699  Parliament  passed  a  law  pro- 
hibiting the  exportation  or  movement  of  wool  either  within 
or  without  the  plantations.  This  very  stringent  act  read 
in  part  as  follows: — 

"No  wool,  woolfells  or  shortlings,  morlings,  wool -fabrics, 
worsteds,  Bay  or  woolen  yarn,  cloath,  serge,  bags,  kerseys, 
says,  frizes,  druggets,  shalloons  or  any  other  drapery, 
stuffs  or  woolen  manufactured  whatsoever,  made  or  mixed 
with  wool  or  wool  flax,  being  the  production  or  manufacture 
of  any  of  the  English  plantations  in  America,  shall  be  laden 
on  any  ship  or  vessel."  Nor  could  same  wares  be  laid  upon 
any  horse  or  carriage  to  be  transported  to  any  place  what- 
soever. 

FIRST  WORSTED   MILL 

The  first  worsted  mill  was  established  in  1695  by  John 
Cornish,  a  comber,  dyer,  weaver,  and  fuller  of  Boston.  He 
dyed  with  two  furnaces,  used  two  combs,  and  wove  with 
four  looms.  His  fulling  mill  was  detached  from  the  rest 
of  the  plant.  The  spinning  was  done  by  farmers,  who  on 
market  days  called  at  the  mill  for  the  clean  top  wool  from 
which  the  noil  had  been  removed  and  brought  back  the 
spun  worsted.  When  Cornish  died,  serge  was  in  the  mak- 
ing on  his  looms.  He  left  an  estate  of  about  twelve  hun- 
dred dollars.  German  immigrants  had  in  1683  and  1689 
established  the  manufacture  of  hosiery  in  Germantown,  Pa., 
and  also  the  manufacture  of  linen. 


THE  LOOM  THAT  PRECEDED  THE  POWER  LOOM 

(According  to  Richard  Guest) 

Figure  1.  The  warp  is  wound  upon  the  yarn  beam  A;  the  lesse  is 
carefully  preserved  by  rods  B;  one-half  of  the  threads  pass  through  one 
heald,  and  the  other  half  through  the  other.  The  healds  C  are  looped  in 
the  middle,  and  the  threads  of  the  warp  go  through  the  loops.  From 
the  healds  the  warp  passes  through  the  reed  D,  which  is  fixed  in  a  mov- 
able frame  called  the  lathe,  E.  A  cross-piece,  F,  on  the  upper  part  of  the 
lathe  rests  on  each  side  of  the  loom,  and  the  lathe  swings  on  this  cross- 
piece.  The  weaver  sits  on  the  seat  G,  and  with  his  foot  presses  down  one 
of  the  treadles  H,  which  raises  one  of  the  healds  and  each  alternate  thread 
of  the  warp.  The  weaver  holds  the  picking  peg  in  his  right  hand,  and  with 
it  drives  the  shuttle  from  one  side  of  the  lathe  to  the  other,  between  and 
across  the  threads  of  the  warp.  The  shuttle  passes  between  the  reed  and 
the  weaver,  and  leaves  behind  it  a  shoot  of  weft.  By  pulling  the  lathe 
towards  him  with  his  left  hand,  this  shoot  of  weft  is  driven  close  to  the 
cloth  made  by  former  casts  of  the  shuttle.  The  cloth  is  wound  upon  the 
cloth  beam  /. 

Figure  2.     The  lathe  used  when  the  shuttle  was  thrown  by  the  hand. 

Figure  3.  Mr.  Kay's  lathe.  K,  the  reed;  LL,  iron  rods;  MM,  mov- 
able slides  which  work  on  the  rods  from  N  to  0,  and  are  fastened  to  P, 
the  picking  peg,  by  a  string  Q;  RR,  boxes,  and  the  weaver  by  a  sudden 
jerk  with  the  picking  peg  moves  the  slide  from  AT  to  0,  and  drives  the 
shuttle  along  the  sled,  or  shuttle  race,  S,  into  the  box  on  the  other  side. 

Figure  4-  The  shuttle.  TT,  wheels  on  which  the  shuttle  moves  along 
the  sled.  U,  the  weft,  fixed  in  the  shuttle  upon  a  skewer.  As  the  shuttle 
flies  across  the  warp,  the  weft  unrolls  from  the  skewer  and  runs  through  a 
small  hole,  V,  in  the  side  of  the  shuttle. 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  131 


SKILL   ATTAINED   IN   TEXTILE   WORK 

There  are  many  records  to  show  that  the  colonists  of 
New  England  and  New  York  had  attained  considerable 
skill  in  textile  work  before  the  opening  of  the  eighteenth 
century  and  were  supplying  a  growing  domestic  demand. 

According  to  Bishop's  "History  of  Manufactures,"  Amer- 
ica at  this  time  was  supplying  quite  exclusively  her  own 
demand  for  the  stouter  and  coarser  kinds  of  mixed  fabrics, 
particularly  those  into  which  linen  and  hemp  thread  en- 
tered. Cotton,  which  was  being  imported  from  the  Barba- 
does  and  occasionally  from  Smyrna  and  elsewhere,  was 
being  woven  with  linen  into  fustian  and  other  fabrics. 

Linen,  however,  continued  to  be  the  principal  material 
used  in  the  manufacture  of  textiles,  being  employed  at  this 
early  date  where  cotton  would  now  be  used.  Much  atten- 
tion was  therefore  given  to  the  planting  and  raising  of 
flax  and  hemp  which  the  linen  manufacture  called  for  in 
growing  quantities.  Much  of  the  domestic  linen  was  of 
a  coarse  texture,  and  was  combined  in  various  ways  with 
wool  into  kerseys,  linsey-woolseys,  serges,  and  druggets. 
These  comprised  the  outer  clothing  of  most  of  the  popula- 
tion in  winter,  while  hempen  cloth  or  linen,  fine  or  coarse 
according  to  the  station  of  the  wearer,  was  the  outer  apparel 
for  warm-weather  wear. 

The  domestic  industry  supplied  the  shirts  and  under- 
wear, bed  and  table  apparel,  of  nearly  all  classes,  but,  as 
the  process  of  manufacture  was  crude,  the  finer  finish  of 
imported  fabrics  was  little  known  in  America.  The  fabrics 
were  serviceable  rather  than  beautiful,  and  the  material 
used  was  grown  upon  the  farms,  or  plantations.  The  various 
steps  in  the  preparation  of  the  flax,  such  as  the  breaking 
and  heckling,  were  performed  by  the  men,  while  the  lighter 
forms  of  labor,  such  as  the  carding,  spinning,  and  often  the 
weaving,  together  with  the  bleaching  and  dyeing,  were 
delegated  to  wives  and  daughters. 


132  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

All  thrifty  families  took  much  pride  in  the  abundance 
and  quality  of  their  linen,  and  everywhere  about  the  col- 
onies domestic  linen  was  much  in  evidence.  An  English 
visitor,  Lord  Cornbury,  said  in  1705  he  had  seen  serge 
made  upon  Long  Island  that  any  man  might  wear,  and 
in  1708  he  reported  "they  make  very  good  linen  for  common 
use."  In  1708  Caleb  Heathcote  wrote  "that  three-quarters 
of  the  linen  and  wool  used  by  the  Colonists  was  of  domestic 
manufacture."  As  early  as  1706  Joseph  Lewis  had  a 
weaving  establishment  at  Waterbury,  Conn.,  and  in  1718 
Massachusetts  laid  an  import  duty  on  manufactures,  and 
the  province,  according  to  the  laws  of  trade,  worked  wool 
into  coarse  cloth,  druggets,  and  serges.  Samuel  Hall  in 
1722  was  not  only  making  buckram  cloth  in  Boston,  but 
was  dealing  in  it  as  a  retail  merchant. 

In  1724  Richard  Rogers,  of  New  London,  Conn.,  was 
weaving  duck  on  eight  looms.  He  expended  one  hundred 
and  forty  pounds,  and  in  the  following  year  increased  it 
to  two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  for  enlarging  his  plant, 
and  the  General  Court  gave  him  a  monopoly  for  ten  years. 
In  1726  the  Salem  Court  awarded  Nathaniel  Potter  thirteen 
pounds  and  fifteen  shillings  for  three  pieces  of  linen  manu- 
factured at  Lynn. 

In  most  of  the  New  England  farmsteads  and  villages 
spinning  wheels  and  looms  for  wool  were  to  be  found,  and 
by  1746  spinning  was  an  occupation  in  every  household, 
rich  as  well  as  poor,  while  spinning  festivals  on  the  com- 
mon were  holiday  pastimes.  The  great  interest  in  spinning 
revived  the  old  talk  of  a  town  school  for  teaching  it,  which 
finally  led  to  the  erection  of  a  brick  building  for  special 
instruction.  A  tax  on  carriages  to  support  this  indus- 
trial institution  was  proposed,  but  was  abandoned  soon 
afterward. 

In  the  States  of  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  and  Con- 
necticut the  textile  industry  had  become  thoroughly  estab- 
lished, and  the  governing  bodies  were  fostering  it  with  lib- 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  133 

eral  bounties.  The  General  Assembly  of  Rhode  Island  in 
1722  voted  William  Borden,  of  Newport,  an  ancestor  of 
the  well-known  Borden  family  of  Fall  River,  twenty  shillings 
for  each  bolt  of  duck  made  of  hemp  grown  in  the  province 
equal  to  good  Holland  duck.  The  bounty  was  to  last  ten 
years.  But  it  was  not  enough,  for  in  response  to  a  petition 
five  hundred  pounds  was  granted  him  May,  1725,  from  the 
colonial  treasury,  "if  there  be  so  much  to  spare." 

He  again  asked  for  assistance  in  1728,  whereupon  the 
Assembly  issued  three  hundred  pounds  in  bills  of  credit 
at  his  expense  and  loaned  the  amount  to  him  without 
interest,  with  surety  that  it  would  be  repaid  in  ten  years. 
By  the  terms  of  the  resolution  he  was  required  to  make 
one  hundred  and  fifty  bolts  every  year  of  good  merchant- 
able duck.  In  1731  the  amount  he  should  make  was  changed 
so  that  the  bounty  was  granted  upon  any  quantity.  Boun- 
ties also  were  given  to  growers  of  flax  and  hemp,  to  encourage 
the  making  of  linen.  Such  progress  had  the  colonies  made 
that  by  1732  one- third  of  the  woolens  needed  were  of  home 
manufacture,  two-thirds  being  imported  from  England. 


BOUNTIES   AND   MONOPOLIES    TO    STIMULATE    THE   INDUSTRY 

Rhode  Island  was  paying  bounties  to  growers  of  flax 
as  well  as  to  manufacturers,  while  Massachusetts  in  1726 
granted  a  monopoly  for  hemp  manufacturing  to  a  petitioner 
and  a  bounty  for  "each  piece  thirty-five  yards  long,  thirty 
inches  wide,  of  good,  even  thread,  well  drove,  of  good, 
bright  color,  being  wholly  of  good,  strong,  water-retted 
hemp."  Nathaniel  Potter  in  1726  was  granted  thirteen 
pounds  and  fifteen  shillings  by  the  Salem  Court  for  three 
pieces  of  linen  made  at  Lynn.  Hemp  was  received  in 
1739  at  fourpence  a  pound  for  taxes,  and  flax  for  sixpence  a 
pound.  In  almost  every  hamlet,  by  1746,  weaving  mills 
might  be  found. 

The  promotion  of  the  textile  industry  early  in  1748  had 


134  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

attracted  such  public  interest  that  a  movement  was  started 
in  Boston  not  only  for  the  promotion  of  manufactures, 
which  would  relieve  the  province  from  the  drain  of  sending 
money  to  England  to  meet  the  excess  of  imports  over  ex- 
ports, to  develop  domestic  manufactures  and  the  immigra- 
tion of  skilled  mechanics,  but  also  to  afford  employment 
to  the  poor. 

Accordingly,  a  number  of  the  leading  citizens  of  Boston 
on  March  10,  1748,  in  order  to  compass  these  purposes, 
organized  and  subscribed  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  pounds 
each  to  promote  the  linen  manufacture.  Another  meeting 
was  held  on  the  12th  of  July,  1750,  which  seems  to  have 
resulted  only  in  further  talk  of  the  establishment  of  a  linen 
manufactory  house  on  the  Common,  and  it  was  also  pro- 
posed to  open  several  spinning  schools  in  the  town  where 
children  might  be  taught  free  of  charge. 

But  it  seemed  difficult  for  the  industry  to  get  a  start, 
and  finally  the  Society  for  Encouraging  Industries  and 
Employing  the  Poor  was  organized  Aug.  21,  1751,  under 
whose  energetic  auspices  the  linen  manufactory  was  finally 
started.  The  society  is  believed  to  have  been  the  first 
formed  in  this  country  for  the  development  of  an  industry 
and  to  provide  employment  for  the  poor.  The  Linen 
Manufactory  House  thus  established  was  not  the  same 
as  the  manufactory  house  which  was  built  in  1753  on  Long- 
acre  Street,  now  Tremont  Street,  at  the  junction  with  Ham- 
ilton Place,  by  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts. 

The  Linen  Men's  House  on  the  Common  advertised  for 
yarn  in  1750.  Homespun  garments  of  all  kinds,  hemp, 
flax,  and  wool,  were  now  being  made  by  the  colonists,  and 
spinning  and  weaving  seemed  to  be  the  one  industry  that 
received  the  patronizing  care  of  the  colonial  government. 
The  records  of  the  General  Court  are  full  of  enactments 
relating  to  this  industry. 

Cotton  up  to  this  time  was  largely  imported  from  the 
West  Indies,  as  the  home  spinners  often  filled  the  flax  or 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  135 

wool  warp  with  a  cotton  weft,  and,  as  reported  in  1756  by 
Governor  Moore  of  New  York,  there  were  two  kinds  of 
woolen  being  made, — one,  coarse,  of  all  wool;  the  other, 
linsey-woolsey,  of  linen  in  the  warp  and  woolen  in  the  woof. 
Weavers  were  then  wandering  all  over  the  country,  weaving 
yarns  that  had  been  spun  on  the  household  looms. 


THE  SPINNING   CRAZE 

The  settlement  of  one  hundred  Irish  families  in  1718 
at  Nutfield,  now  Londonderry,  N.H.,  on  the  left  bank  of 
the  Merrimac,  a  few  miles  below  Manchester,  gave  an  im- 
pulse to  the  production  of  linen,  and  also  influenced  the 
starting  of  what  has  been  termed  the  Boston  Spinning 
Craze. 

These  Irish  immigrants  spun  and  wove  the  standard 
linen  fabrics  for  which  Ireland  has  long  been  famous,  and 
their  skill  and  industry  stimulated  the  people  of  Boston  to 
increase  the  amount  and  quality  of  the  homespun  produc- 
tion by  thorough  instruction  in  spinning  and  weaving. 
Classes  in  the  industry  had  been  held  from  time  to  time 
on  the  Common  and  in  the  upper  part  of  the  old  State 
House,  but  no  steps  were  taken  to  teach  the  art  systemat- 
ically until  1720,  when  a  committee  was  appointed  to  see 
what  could  be  done.  They  recommended  procuring  a 
house  and  hiring  a  weaver  whose  wife  should  instruct  chil- 
dren in  spinning  flax.  Their  board  was  to  be  furnished  for 
three  months  by  the  overseers  of  the  town,  and  at  the  ex- 
piration of  the  three  months  the  children  were  to  have  their 
own  earnings.  It  was  further  recommended  that  the  town 
should  provide  twenty  spinning  wheels,  and  a  prize  of  five 
pounds  was  offered  for  the  first  piece  of  linen  spun  and  woven 
that  was  worth  four  shillings  per  yard. 

The  next  year  the  plan  was  changed  to  an  offer  of  a  loan 
of  three  hundred  pounds  without  interest  to  any  one  who 
would  start  such  a  school.  Other  plans  were  suggested, 


136  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

but  it  was  not  until  1721  that  any  decisive  action  was  taken. 
Daniel  Oliver  then  erected  the  first  spinning  school  on 
"land  below  Harrison's  Walk,"  at  his  own  expense,  and  the 
school  which  had  begun  on  the  Common  had  a  shelter. 

Prizes  were  offered,  and  many  strutted  about  in  homespun 
clothes  of  their  own  making.  The  people  wore  woolen 
clothing  mixed  with  linen  or  flax  for  summer  wear,  and  spin- 
ning continued  to  grow  in  favor,  and  soon  became  popular 
among  rich  and  poor  alike.  Justice  Samuel  Sewall  speaks 
of  a  spinning-bee  on  the  Common  in  which  five  hundred 
fashionable  women  took  part.  Spinning  had  become  an 
occupation  in  every  household. 

At  the  second  anniversary  of  Boston's  Society  for  Pro- 
moting Industry  and  Frugality  on  Aug.  8,  1753,  the  Rev. 
Samuel  Cooper  preached  a  sermon  before  the  society,  and 
a  collection  of  four  hundred  and  fifty-three  pounds  was 
raised.  Three  hundred  young  women  appeared  that  after- 
noon on  the  Common  in  a  procession,  accompanied  by 
music,  and  men  carrying  a  platform  on  which  a  weaver 
was  operating  a  loom,  and,  seating  themselves  in  three 
rows,  they  spun  at  their  spinning  wheels.  Weavers,  cleanly 
dressed  in  garments  of  their  own  manufacture,  were  also 
present. 

Some  of  the  enthusiasm  may  have  been  aroused  by  an 
act  passed  on  the  23d  of  June,  1753,  by  the  "Great  and 
General  Court  of  his  Majesties  Province  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  in  New  England,"  which  granted  fifteen  hun- 
dred pounds  to  encourage  the  manufacture  of  linen.  It 
provided  that  a  tax  be  levied  on  every  coach,  chariot,  chaise, 
calash,  and  chair  within  the  province,  to  be  paid  by  the 
owner  thereof  annually,  except  the  governor,  lieutenant 
governor,  the  president  of  Harvard,  and  the  ministers  of 
the  province.  The  money  was  to  be  applied  to  the  buy- 
ing of  a  piece  of  land  and  building  or  purchasing  a  suitable 
house  for  carrying  on  linen  manufacture. 

Accordingly,  a  lot  was  bought  Sept.  15,  1753,  on  Com- 


P!    6 


HIGH'S  JENNY 

(According  to  Richard  Guest) 

Figure  1. — A,  the  spindles,  turned  by  strings  from  the  drum  B;  C,  the 
rovings;  D,  the  wire  loops;  E,  the  clove,  which  rises  and  falls  in  the  groove 
FF,  and  is  opened  and  shut  by  the  latch  G.  When  the  clove  is  down  at 
the  spindles,  at  H  it  is  opened  and  the  drum  is  turned,  which  raises  the 
clove  by  means  of  the  cord  II,  which,  passing  over  pulleys,  is  coiled  round 
the  bobbin  K.  As  the  clove  rises,  the  rovings  slide  through  it.  When  the 
clove  is  raised  five  or  six  inches  to  L,  it  is  shut  fast  by  the  latch  G,  the 
drum  is  again  turned,  which  sets  the  spindles  in  motion  and  raises  the  clove 
by  the  coiling  of  the  cord  round  the  bobbin.  The  rising  of  the  clove  draws 
out  the  five  or  six  inches  of  roving  shut  fast  between  the  spindles  and  the 
clove  into  weft.  When  the  clove  is  raised  to  3/,  the  roving  is  sufficiently 
drawn  out.  The  bobbin  is  then  moved  by  a  latch  from  the  lower  part  of 
the  axle,  nearer  to  the  handle  where  the  axle  is  of  less  diameter  than  the 
bore  of  the  bobbin.  The  drum  is  then  turned,  and  the  spindles  again  re- 
volve, giving  to  the  weft  the  necessary  twist.  During  this  twisting  of 
the  weft,  the  clove  and  the  bobbin  remain  stationary,  the  axle  of  the  drum 
turning  within  the  bobbin,  and  a  leaden  weight,  A7,  counterbalancing  the 
clove.  When  twisted,  the  clove  is  lowered  from  M  to  H  by  the  hand  of 
the  spinner,  and  the  weft  copped,  or  wound  upon  the  spindles.  The  drop 
rod  0  guides  the  weft  upon  the  spindles. 

Figure  2. — The  axle  of  the  drum  square  at  P,  and  round  and  of  less 
diameter  at  Q. 

Figure  3. — The  bobbin,  which  when  at  P  turns  with  the  axle,  but  when 
at  Q  remains  stationary. 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  137 

mon  Street,  and  a  handsome  brick  building  erected,  which 
was  later  known  as  the  Manufactory  House.  The  west 
end  fronted  on  Longacre,  now  Tremont,  Street,  and  on  the 
wall  was  the  sign  of  its  purpose  in  the  form  of  a  female 
figure  holding  a  distaff.  The  building  was  in  operation 
under  the  auspices  of  the  society  until  1758. 

An  advertisement  in  the  Boston  News  Letter  of  Sept.  9, 
1762,  showed  that  the  spinning  school  was  then  again  opened 
under  the  direction  of  John  Brown,  who  was  engaged 
in  the  making  of  linen.  John  Brown  continued  in  peaceful 
possession  until  1768,  when  an  effort  was  made  to  dispossess 
him  in  order  to  use  the  building  as  barracks  for  the  British 
soldiers,  who  then  occupied  Boston.  When  Brown  refused 
to  get  out,  the  sheriff  and  the  chief  justice  proceeded  to 
the  house,  but  Brown  locked  the  doors,  and  informed  them 
through  the  window  that  only  an  order  from  the  General 
Court  could  move  him.  Next  day  the  sheriff  came  again 
with  his  deputies,  and  climbed  in  the  cellar  window.  Brown 
showed  his  mettle  by  immediately  declaring  the  sheriff 
his  prisoner.  Then  a  guard  was  sent  to  protect  the  sheriff, 
but  it  was  finally  called  off,  and  Brown  was  left  in  possession; 
and  the  soldiers  were  accommodated  elsewhere. 


APPROACH  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

The  English  policy  of  making  the  colonies  dependent, 
as  far  as  possible,  upon  the  home  country  for  manufactured 
goods,  particularly  textiles,  had  much  to  do  with  hastening 
the  slow  approach  of  the  Revolution.  But,  despite  this 
short-sighted  policy,  in  many  different  parts  of  the  colonies 
homespun  garments  were  being  made  of  cotton  and  wool 
in  greater  and  greater  quantities  with  more  and  more 
skill. 

The  enactment  of  the  Stamp  Act  and  the  approach  of 
the  Revolution  caused  a  greater  demand  for  domestic 
goods,  and  also  brought  the  social  prestige  of  the  leaders  of 


138  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

public  opinion  to  further  the  spread  of  the  textile  industry 
by  their  advocacy  of  a  refusal  to  use  English  goods. 

The  desire  to  promote  domestic  manufacture  caused  in 
New  York  the  formation  in  November,  1764,  of  "the  Society 
for  the  Promotion  of  Arts,  Agriculture,  and  Economy," 
the  principal  object  of  which  was  to  encourage  the  manu- 
facture of  linen.  For  a  number  of  years  its  encouragement 
took  the  form  of  premiums  for  the  largest  quantity  of  linen 
yarn  and  linen  cloth  spun  by  a  resident  of  the  province. 
In  1767  Governor  Moore  of  that  province  reported  to  the 
British  Board  of  Trade  that  there  was  a  small  manufactory 
of  linen  in  New  York  City  under  the  management  of  a  man 
named  Obadiah  Wells,  which  was  supported  by  the  society. 
It  used  about  fourteen  looms  and  gave  bread  to  several 
poor  families.  Coarse  wool  and  linsey  -  woolsey  was  also, 
he  said,  being  made  in  New  York. 

Providence,  R.I.,  set  an  example  in  1766,  when  the  Daugh- 
ters of  Liberty  held  all-day  sessions  of  spinning,  and,  as  a 
result  of  their  influence,  the  president  and  the  first  gradu- 
ating class  of  Rhode  Island  College  at  Commencement  in 
1769  were  clothed  in  fabrics  of  American  manufacture. 
Men's  and  women's  wear  now  included  blue,  black,  and  claret 
broadcloth.  The  Senior  Class  in  1768  at  Harvard  College, 
Cambridge,  was  much  commended  for  agreeing  to  graduate 
dressed  wholly  in  native  fabrics. 

At  the  opening  of  the  Revolution  New  England  was 
supplying  the  demand  for  cheap  clothing;  while  silk,  owing 
to  the  encouragement  that  England,  hoping  to  take  this 
trade  from  France,  gave  to  this  branch  of  the  textile  in- 
dustry, had  made  a  good  start  in  Connecticut,  Pennsyl- 
vania, Georgia  and  South  Carolina.  Silk  culture  was  en- 
couraged all  over  New  England,  and  there  is  scarcely  one  of 
the  New  England  cities  that  has  not  its  Mulberry  Street, 
named  from  the  trees  which  were  set  out  to  furnish  food 
for  silkworms. 

For  all  the  finer  cotton  and  woolen  garments,  however, 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  139 

America  was  still  dependent  upon  England,  because  English 
spinners  and  weavers  were  more  skilful,  and  also  had  the 
advantage  of  the  improvements  in  textile  machinery,  the 
exportation  of  which  England  so  jealously  guarded.  Just 
before  the  Revolution,  efforts  were  made  in  America  to  start 
manufacturing  with  machinery,  but  the  absence  of  artisans 
who  knew  how  to  construct  the  machines  of  Hargreaves 
and  Arkwright  rendered  these  attempts  futile. 


IMPROVEMENTS   IN   ENGLISH   TEXTILE  MACHINERY 

The  great  improvements  in  the  textile  machinery  in 
England  from  1738,  when  Lewis  Paul  took  out  the  first 
patent  for  improvement  in  spinning  cotton,  to  1775,  when 
Arkwright  completed  his  great  invention,  revolutionized  the 
English  industry  and  promised  to  give  England  control  of 
the  world's  textile  market.  England,  not  slow  to  perceive 
the  great  advantage  within  her  grasp,  adopted  stringent 
measures  to  prevent  a  spread  of  the  knowledge  of  the  va- 
rious textile  machines,  and  Parliament  in  1774,  to  restrict 
to  England  a  monopoly  of  the  textile  machinery  which 
the  inventive  genius  of  her  workmen  was  rapidly  perfect- 
ing, as  well  as  to  prevent  the  development  of  the  industry 
in  America,  prohibited  the  exportation  of  the  machinery, 
and  attempted  to  prevent  with  severe  penalties  the  emi- 
gration of  textile  artisans. 

One  of  the  first  steps  to  improve  American  manufacturing 
was  taken  by  that  far -sighted  early  Quaker  merchant 
of  Philadelphia,  Samuel  Wetherill,  Jr.,  who,  March  16, 
1775,  entered  an  agreement  of  copartnership  with  a  number 
of  others  in  Philadelphia  under  the  title  "The  United 
Company  of  Philadelphia,  for  Promoting  American  Manu- 
factures." It  set  up  the  American  manufactory  for  woolens, 
cottons,  and  linens  in  a  house  rented  for  forty  pounds  a 
year,  at  the  south-west  corner  of  Ninth  and  Market  Streets, 
about  where  a  part  of  the  post-office  now  is,  and  the  factory 


140  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

continued  to  prosper  until  the  occupation  of  Philadelphia 
by  the  British  put  it  out  of  business.  The  yarn  was  spun 
upon  a  spinning  jenny  made  by  Christopher  Tully  and 
capable  of  spinning  twenty-four  threads.  He  was  the  first 
in  America  to  build  a  machine  from  a  model  of  Hargreaves. 
The  attempt  to  use  the  jenny  was  not  wholly  successful, 
but  the  manufactory  paid  a  dividend  and  ran  in  all  about 
two  years. 

During  the  Revolution  the  imports  from  England  fell 
off,  and  the  colonies,  being  thrown  upon  their  own  resources, 
continued  to  develop  the  industry  which  clothed  them; 
and  better  and  better  fabrics  were  turned  from  their  looms. 
The  first  to  make  jeans,  fustians,  everlastings,  and  coatings 
in  America  on  a  commercial  scale,  was  probably  the  afore- 
said enterprising  Samuel  Wetherill,  Jr.  His  goods  were 
sold  at  his  dwelling-house  and  factory,  on  what  was  then 
South  Alley,  between  Market  and  Arch  Streets  and  between 
Fifth  and  Sixth  Streets,  Philadelphia.  This  was  prior  to 
April  3,  1782,  when  his  advertisement  appeared  in  the 
Pennsylvania  Gazette. 

John  Hewson,  the  first  calico  printer,  came  to  this  country 
from  England  at  the  invitation  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  and 
worked  at  his  trade  in  Philadelphia.  He  was  taken  prisoner 
at  the  battle  of  Monmouth,  and  escaped.  Thereupon  the 
British,  because  of  his  skill  in  a  branch  of  manufacture 
in  which  England  wished  to  suppress  colonial  competition, 
offered  a  reward  of  fifty  guineas  for  his  head.  After  the 
Revolution  he  continued  in  business,  and  in  1789  received 
from  the  State  treasury  a  loan  of  two  hundred  pounds,  to 
enable  him  to  carry  on  the  business  of  calico  printing  and 
bleaching. 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  141 

CONDITION   OP  THE  MARKET   IMMEDIATELY  AFTER  THE 
REVOLUTION 

The  close  of  the  Revolution  gave  the  English  manufact- 
urers of  fabrics  an  opportunity  to  flood  the  American 
market  with  the  one  production  which  then*  activity  during 
the  Revolution  had  created  in  England,  and  English  goods 
from  1783-87  were  sold  in  America  at  prices  less  than 
their  cost  in  Europe  and  for  much  less  than  they  could  be 
manufactured  on  this  side.  Some  of  the  States  imposed 
high  duties  upon  fabrics  manufactured  by  other  States. 
This  duty  between  the  States,  together  with  the  low  cost 
of  English-made  fabrics,  was  a  serious  detriment  to  American 
manufacturing,  and  numbers  of  persons  in  different  parts 
of  the  United  States  undertook  movements  to  promote 
American  industries. 

Some  knowledge  of  the  new  labor-saving  machines  reached 
America  from  England,  but  nothing  very  definite  about 
them  was  known  because  of  the  precautions  England 
had  taken  to  prevent  the  knowledge  spreading  abroad.  So 
stringent  were  these  acts  that  it  was  not  until  after  1770 
that  it  was  possible  to  secure  from  England  designs  and 
models  of  the  new  machinery,  and  then  only  with  the  utmost 
difficulty,  owing  to  the  prohibitory  legislation.  Some 
Hargreaves  jennies  and  carding  machines  had  been  smuggled 
in,  but  none  of  Arkwright's  machines,  so  that  until  Samuel 
Slater  constructed  these  machines  in  1790  at  Pawtucket 
every  attempt  to  make  yarn  by  water  power  had  failed. 

AMERICAN   EFFORT   TO   SECURE   ENGLISH   MACHINES 

All  kinds  of  expedients  were  tried  by  Americans  to  ob- 
tain either  designs  or  copies  of  the  English  machines.  Tench 
Coxe,  a  public-spirited  Philadelphian,  at  his  own  expense 
had  sent  an  English  mechanic,  who  was  living  in  Philadel- 
phia, to  construct  brass  models  of  the  Arkwright  machines. 


142  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

The  models  were  to  be  shipped  to  Paris,  and  through  the 
agency  of  the  American  minister  reshipped  to  America. 
The  designs  of  the  mechanic  were  discovered,  the  models 
were  seized,  and  the  mechanic  himself  was  bonded  not  to 
leave  England  for  three  years. 

At  another  time,  models  were  packed  and  shipped  to 
France,  to  be  repacked  and  reshipped  by  the  American  min- 
ister to  France,  but  they  were  seized  in  transit.  Again, 
when  an  English  artisan  had  succeeded  in  smuggling  him- 
self aboard  a  ship  bound  for  America,  the  ship  was  stopped, 
searched,  and  the  artisan  seized  and  brought  back  to  Eng- 
land and  put  under  bonds  not  to  leave.  In  some  instances, 
machines  were  bought  in  England,  taken  apart,  boxed 
separately,  labelled  agricultural  implements,  and  reshipped 
to  America.  For  instance,  card  clothing  was  mounted  on 
handles  and  called  "cards  for  cattle";  while  the  spindles 
were  called  "teeth  for  horse-rakes."  In  other  instances  the 
machines  were  cut  up  in  small  pieces,  shipped  as  glassware 
to  France,  and  reshipped  to  America.  It  was  not  long  after 
1800  that  the  makers  of  textiles  on  this  side  of  the  water 
were  almost  as  well  equipped  with  English  machines  as 
were  the  English  themselves. 


ENGLAND  AND  COTTON 

According  to  Bain's  "History  of  Cotton,"  the  importation 
of  cotton  in  1730,  before  the  invention  of  the  fly  shuttle, 
was  but  1,545,472  pounds,  and  the  value  of  the  cotton 
goods  exported  was  13,524  pounds;  while  in  1800,  thirteen 
years  after  the  invention  of  Cartwright's  loom  and  Watt's 
steam-engine,  the  cotton  imported  was  56,010,732  pounds, 
and  the  exports  were  5,406,501  pounds.  The  value  of  the 
product  in  1787  was  3,304,371  pounds  sterling,  or  five  and 
one-half  times  that  of  1766. 

Cotton  was  being  used  in  1787  in  the  one  hundred  and 
forty-three  mills  in  England,  Scotland,  Wales,  and  the  Isle 


IMPROVED  JENNY 

(According  to  Guest) 

The  wheel  A  turns  the  cylinder  B  by  a  band  CC.  The  spindles  are 
turned  by  strings  from  the  cylinder  B.  The  rovings  are  placed  on  the 
frame  E  and  pass  through  the  clove  F  to  the  spindles.  The  clove  moves 
in  the  groove  GG.  When  the  clove  is  close  to  the  spindles  at  H,  it  is  opened 
and  drawn  from  them  eight  or  ten  inches  to  7,  the  rovings  sliding  through 
it.  It  is  then  shut  fast,  and  the  spindles  are  set  in  motion  by  turning  the 
wheel  A.  As  the  spindles  revolve,  the  clove  is  drawn  back  from  /  to  K 
by  the  left  hand  of  the  spinner:  this  stretches  out  the  rovings  into  weft. 
When  stretched  out,  the  spinner  holds  the  clove  at  K  with  the  left  hand, 
and  gives  the  proper  degree  of  twist  by  turning  the  wheel  A  with  the  right 
hand.  The  weft  is  then  copped  by  turning  the  clove  to  H.  L,  the  drop 
rod.  The  spindles  in  the  first  improved  jennies  were  turned  by  strings 
from  a  drum  on  a  perpendicular  axis. 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  143 

of  Man  as  follows:  calico  and  muslins,  11,600,000  pounds; 
fustians,  6,000,000  pounds;  mixtures  with  silk  and  linen, 
2,000,000  pounds;  hosiery,  1,500,000  pounds;  candlewicks, 
1,500,000  pounds, — making  a  total  of  22,600,000  pounds. 
162,000  hands  were  employed  in  the  industry. 

Before  Arkwright,  printed  calicoes  were  made  of  linen 
warp  and  cotton  weft,  because  the  cotton  spun  by  hand 
was  not  strong  enough  to  use  for  the  warp.  After  Ark- 
wright had  strengthened  the  warp,  manufacturers  could 
not  be  persuaded  to  use  it,  and  when  Mr.  Jedediah  Strutt, 
Mr.  Arkwright's  partner,  successfully  wove  cotton  warp 
into  calico,  he  was  under  the  law  subjected  to  a  double 
duty  and  had  to  petition  Parliament  before  he  secured 
relief. 

In  1780  there  were  twenty  water-frame  factories  using 
Arkwright's  patent  in  England.  After  1785,  when  the 
court  declared  his  patents  void,  the  factories  sprang  up 
so  rapidly  that  by  1790  there  were  one  hundred  and  fifty  in 
England  and  Wales.  Before  1787  not  only  had  the  United 
States  not  exported  any  quantity  of  domestic  cotton,  but 
no  planter  had  adopted  its  cultivation  as  a  staple  crop. 
Cotton  was  then  secured  from  the  East  and  West  Indies 
and  Brazil,  for  it  was  not  until  1784  that  England  commenced 
to  import  cotton  from  the  United  States. 


STARTING   OF   COTTON   CULTIVATION  IN  THE  SOUTH 

One  of  the  first  things  to  which  Tench  Coxe,  who  subse- 
quently became  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  under 
Alexander  Hamilton,  turned  his  enterprising  mind,  was  to 
the  problem  of  the  production  of  cotton  in  the  colonies. 
He  was  early  convinced  of  its  feasibility,  despite  that  prior 
to  1736  cotton,  save  as  a  garden  flower,  was  uncultivated 
in  the  South.  It  was  hi  1736  being  raised  as  a  garden 
flower  as  far  north  as  Talbot  County,  Maryland,  and  else- 
where on  the  eastern  shore  of  Maryland,  the  lower  coun- 


144  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

ties  of  Delaware,  and  other  places  in  the  Middle  States, 
but  its  useful  qualities  soon  were  recognized,  and  its  reg- 
ular cultivation  for  fabrics  was  begun  in  those  sections. 
Coxe,  having  learned  of  the  labor-saving  machines  in  Great 
Britain  and  having  secured  more  or  less  accurate  knowledge 
of  great  importance  to  the  cotton  industry,  turned  his  mind 
to  increasing  the  production  of  cotton  by  its  cultivation  in 
the  South,  that  "the  Cotton  Spinning  Mill  might  be  brought 
into  very  beneficial  use  in  the  United  States."  He  took 
effective  measures  to  interest  the  whole  community,  par- 
ticularly the  planters  of  the  five  original  Southern  States. 

But  Coxe  found  it  a  slow  task  to  interest  the  planters 
of  these  five  States.  At  the  convention  held  in  1786  at 
Annapolis  to  consider  what  means  could  be  used  to  improve 
the  industrial  condition  of  the  country,  James  Madison, 
later  President,  who  was  a  member  of  the  convention,  said 
in  a  conversation  with  Coxe,  "There  was  no  reason  to  doubt 
that  the  United  States  would  one  day  become  a  great 
cotton-producing  country." 

And  in  the  same  year  Thomas  Jefferson  wrote  to  M.  de 
Warville,  under  date  of  August  15:  "The  four  southernmost 
states  make  a  great  deal  of  cotton.  Their  poor  are  almost 
entirely  clothed  in  it  winter  and  summer.  In  winter  they 
wear  shirts  of  it,  and  outer  clothing  of  cotton  and  wool 
mixed.  In  summer  their  shirts  are  linen,  but  the  outer 
clothing  cotton.  The  dress  of  the  women  is  almost  entirely 
of  cotton  manufactured  by  themselves,  except  the  richer 
class,  and  even  many  of  these  wear  a  good  deal  of  homespun 
cotton.  It  is  as  well  manufactured  as  the  calicoes  of  Europe. 
Those  four  states  furnish  a  great  deal  of  cotton  to  the  states 
north  of  them,  who  cannot  make,  as  being  too  cold." 

The  best  evidence  proves  that  the  first  culture  of  cotton 
in  the  South  was  made  on  the  peninsula  between  the  Dela- 
ware and  Chesapeake  Bays,  and  that  the  growth  of  cotton 
spread  across  to  Western  Maryland  and  Virginia,  and  so 
on  extended  until  it  had  become  the  great  Southern  crop. 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  145 

ORIGIN     OF    SEA     ISLAND     COTTON     AND     BEGINNING    OP     ITS 
CULTIVATION  IN  THE   SOUTH 

The  story  of  Sea  Island  cotton  is  much  more  precise. 
In  1785  Patrick  Walsh,  of  Kingston,  Jamaica,  persuaded 
his  friend,  Frank  Levett,  who  with  his  family  and  negroes 
was  in  a  distressed  condition,  to  settle  on  Sapelo,  one  of 
the  islands  off  the  coast  of  Georgia,  and  plant  provisions. 
Walsh  sent  him  in  1786  a  large  quantity  of  various  seeds 
of  Jamaica,  and  also  three  large  sacks  of  the  Pernambuco 
cotton  seed.  Levett  wrote  Walsh  in  1789 : — 

"Being  in  want  of  the  sacks  for  gathering  in  my  pro- 
visions I  shook  their  contents  on  the  dung  hill,  and  it 
happening  to  be  a  very  wet  season  in  the  Spring,  multitudes 
of  plants  covered  the  place.  Those  I  drew  out  and  trans- 
planted them  into  two  acres  of  ground  and  was  highly 
gratified  to  find  an  abundant  crop.  This  encouraged  me 
to  plant  more.  I  used  all  my  strength  in  clearing  and 
planting,  and  have  succeeded  beyond  my  most  sanguine 
expectations."  Thus  it  was  that  Sea  Island  cotton  origi- 
nated, the  most  valuable  of  all  cotton  staples. 

About  the  same  time  that  Levett  planted  his  cotton, 
James  Spaulding,  Colonel  Robert  Kelsal,  and  Governor 
Tatnall,  all  of  Georgia,  received  parcels  of  the  seed  from 
friends  who  were  exiled  Royalists  and  who  were  living  in 
the  Bahamas,  and  planted  them  with  excellent  results. 
Levett's  cotton  was  sent  to  London,  and  sold  to  Glasgow 
manufacturers  for  four  shillings,  sixpence,  per  pound.  The 
purchasers  said  that  they  had  never  seen  cotton  so  good  and 
promised  to  take  all  that  would  be  procured.  The  London 
agents,  Simpson  and  Davidson,  were  told  to  inform  their 
friends  that  the  market  could  not  be  overstocked,  so 
superior  was  the  long-stapled,  silky  Sea  Island  cotton 
to  that  which  England  was  getting  from  the  East  and 
West  Indies. 

Twenty  persons  in  1789  were  growing  Sea  Island  cotton 


146  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

in  Georgia,  but  it  was  not  extensively  raised  in  South 
Carolina  until  1799. 

The  influence  of  Tench  Coxe  induced  Congress  in  1789 
to  protect  the  Southern  growers  by  placing  a  duty  of  three 
cents  a  pound  on  foreign  cotton.  At  this  time  the  produc- 
tion of  cotton,  according  to  an  estimate  of  the  Treasury 
Department,  was  about  one  million  pounds.  In  1790  it 
was  a  million  and  a  half,  and  in  1791  two  million  pounds, 
three-fourths  of  which  came  from  South  Carolina  and  the 
rest  from  Georgia. 

The  invention  of  Whitney's  gin  enormously  increased, 
as  we  have  seen,  the  production  of  cotton  by  making  it 
easy  to  separate  the  fibre  from  the  seed,  and  cotton  soon 
became  the  great  staple  crop  of  the  South. 

According  to  a  letter  written  by  Richard  Teake,  of  Sa- 
vannah, Ga.,  to  Thomas  Proctor,  of  Philadelphia,  dated 
Dec.  11,  1788,  the  year  1788  marked  the  introduction 
of  cotton  growing  on  a  large  scale  in  the  Carolinas  and 
Georgia."— 

"I  have  been  this  year  an  adventurer  and  the  first 
that  has  attempted  on  a  large  scale  in  the  articles  of  cotton. 
Several  here,  as  well  as  in  Carolina,  have  followed  me  and 
tried  the  experiment.  I  will  raise  about  5,000  pounds  in 
the  seed  from  about  eight  acres  of  land  and  next  year  I 
expect  to  plant  fifty  to  one  huiulivd  acres.  The  laiuls 
in  the  southern  part  of  this  state  are  admirably  adapted 

to  the  raising  of   this  eoiunuulity.     The  climate  is  so  mild 

so  far  to  the  South,  scarce  any  winter  is  felt  and  another 
advantage — whites  can  be  employed.  The  labor  is  not  se- 
vere attending  it;  not  more  than  raising  Indian  corn.** 

Cotton  was  undoubtedly  shipped  from  the  colonies  to 
England  in  1747,  1753,  1757,  1764,  and  1770.  In  fact,  a 
reproduction  of  a  bill  of  lading  for  eighteen  bales  of  cotton 
shipped  July  20,  1751,  from  New  York  to  London  on  the 
vessel  of  Captain  Barnaby  Badgers,  is  reproduce^  in  C  hew's 
"History  of  the  Kingdom  of  Cotton  uiul  Cotton  Statistics 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  147 

of  the  World."  It  has  been  claimed  that  this  was  a  reship- 
ment  of  cotton  grown  in  the  West  Indies.  Whether  or 
not  this  is  true,  the  fact  remains  that  some  of  the  cotton 
grown  either  for  floral  purposes  or  home  industry  in  the 
colonies  did  find  its  way  to  Europe.  Another  authority 
says  that  Samuel  Auspourgouer,  a  Swiss  firing  in  Georgia, 
took  to  London  in  1739,  at  the  time  of  the  controversy  over 
the  introduction  of  slaves,  a  sample  of  the  cotton  raised 
by  him  in  Georgia. 

Jefferson  mentions  cotton  as  an  article  of  export  from 
Virginia  previous  to  the  Revolution.  Hie  real  beginning 
of  the  cotton  trade  between  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain  was  in  1791,  when  Mr.  Rathbone,  an  American 
merchant  in  Liverpool,  received  a  consignment  of  eight 
bales  of  cotton,  which  were  seized  by  the  custom-house  on 
the  ground  that  they  could  not  have  been  raised  in  the 
United  States  and  were  liable  to  seizure  under  the  Shipping 
Act  "as  not  being  imported  in  vessels  belonging  to  the 
country  of  growth."  When  its  place  of  growth  was  proven 
to  be  the  United  States,  so  undesirable  was  the  quality  of 
the  cotton  that  it  lay  in  the  warehouse  some  months  after 
its  release  by  the  government  before  it  could  be  sold.  In 
1785  fourteen  bags  were  sent  over,  in  1786  six  bags,  and  in 
1787  one  hundred  and  nine  bags,  of  about  one  hundred  and 
fifty  pounds  each,  readied  Liverpool. 

In  1788  58,350  pounds  were  exported,  and  Sea  Island 
cotton  formed  the  bulk  of  the  exports  until  1793,  and  from 
this  time  on  the  exports  of  cotton  rapidly  increased,  and 
cotton  cultivation  spread  over  the  South  until  cotton  had 
become  the  great  staple  crop,  supplying  the  European  in- 
dustry as  well  as  the 


CHAPTER  VI 

AMERICAN    INDUSTRY    AFTER    THE    REVOLUTION    AND 
BEFORE   SLATER 

FIRST  MANUFACTURING  IN  PENNSYLVANIA — FIRST  COTTON  MILL  IN 
NEW  ENGLAND — FIRST  TEXTILE  TRADE -MARK — FIRST  TEXTILE 
ADVERTISING — BOSTON  SAIL  CLOTH  FACTORY — COMMENCEMENT 
OF  THE  COTTON  INDUSTRY  IN  RHODE  ISLAND — FIRST  WOOLEN 
MILL — WASHINGTON  INAUGURATED  IN  SUIT  OF  DOMESTIC  WOOLEN 
— FIRST  WOOLEN  MILL  OPERATED  WITH  POWER  MACHINERY 

The  most  influential  of  the  early  movements  to  promote 
textile  manufacturing  originated  in  Philadelphia,  where 
cotton  manufacturing  with  power  machinery  began  in 
1764,  and  according  to  the  Complete  Magazine,  published 
in  London  that  year,  "  Some  beautiful  samples  of  the  cotton 
manufactures  now  carried  on  in  Philadelphia  have  been 
lately  imported  and  greatly  admired."  Through  the  ef- 
forts of  Tench  Coxe,  Samuel  Wetherill,  Jr.,  and  others,  a 
society  called  "The  Pennsylvania  Society  for  the  Encour- 
agement of  Manufactures  and  the  Useful  Arts,"  which  was 
an  outgrowth  of  the  United  Company  of  Philadelphia, 
was  organized  on  the  9th  of  August,  1787,  at  a  meeting 
held  at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  The  necessity  of 
promoting  and  establishing  manufactures  was  pointed  out 
in  an  address  by  Tench  Coxe.  Every  member  on  admis- 
sion paid  to  the  treasurer  the  sum  of  ten  shillings  and  the 
same  sum  annually  for  the  purpose  of  defraying  the  neces- 
sary expenses  of  the  society,  and  a  subscription  of  not  less 
than  ten  pounds  was  opened,  and  called  the  "manufactur- 
ing fund,"  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  factories  in  such 
places  as  might  be  thought  suitable. 

The  society  on  Aug.  23,   1788,  had  received  thirteen 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  149 

hundred  and  twenty-seven  pounds,  ten  shillings,  and  six- 
pence, had  spent  four  hundred  and  fifty-three  pounds,  ten 
shillings,  and  twopence  for  machines,  utensils,  and  equip- 
ping the  house  of  the  old  United  Company  of  Philadel- 
phia for  the  manufactory,  and  had  a  capital  left  of  eight 
hundred  and  seventy-four  pounds,  no  shillings,  and  four- 
pence.  As  one  of  the  objects  of  the  society  was  the  em- 
ployment of  the  poor,  a  quantity  of  flax  was  bought,  and 
between  two  and  three  hundred  women  were  employed 
during  the  winter  and  spring  in  spinning  linen  yarn.  Work- 
men were  engaged  to  make  a  carding  machine  and  four 
jennies  of  forty,  forty-four,  sixty,  and  eighty  spindles  for 
spinning  cotton.  As  soon  as  possible  the  house  was  fitted 
up  and  the  machines  set  to  work.  Various  obstacles, 
such  as  finding  proper  workmen,  making  machines  from 
imperfect  models,  various  obstructions  thrown  in  the  way 
by  agents  of  foreign  manufacturers,  combined  to  delay  the 
work,  so  that  it  was  the  12th  of  April,  1788,  before  the 
first  loom  was  set  to  work.  This  was  twelve  days  before 
the  Beverly  Cotton  Manufactory  turned  out  goods  from 
its  new  mill,  and,  if  the  Beverly  proprietors  did  not  make 
any  goods  until  moving  into  the  Beverly  mill,  to  Phila- 
delphia belongs  the  distinction  of  establishing  in  America 
the  first  cotton  mill  with  power  machinery. 

If  when  the  Hon.  George  Cabot  wrote  to  Alexander 
Hamilton  that  the  Beverly  gentlemen  were  engaged  in  the 
cotton  manufacturing  in  October,  1787,  he  meant  that  they 
were  then  turning  out  cotton  fabrics  by  machinery,  the 
honor  of  being  the  first  to  engage  in  cotton  manufacturing 
with  machinery  belongs  not  to  Philadelphia,  but  to  Mas- 
sachusetts. If  he  simply  referred  to  the  fact  that  these 
men  were  engaged  in  promoting  a  cotton  manufactory, 
then  any  distinction  which  springs  from  the  establishment 
of  the  first  cotton  -mill  in  America  belongs  without  question 
to  Pennsylvania. 

The  number  of  looms  in  Philadelphia  was  speedily  in- 


150  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

creased  to  twenty-six,  and  the  following  goods  had  been 
made  up  to  Aug.  23,  1788:  jeans,  2,959j/£  yards;  corduroy, 
1971/2  yards;  federal  rib,  67  yards;  beaver  fustian,  57 
yards;  plain  cotton,  1,567^  yards;  linen,  725  yards;  tow 
linen,  1,337^  yards;  total,  7,111  yards.  In  the  looms  at 
that  time  there  were  200  yards  of  jeans,  corduroys,  cottons, 
and  linens.  The  manufactory  had  sold  manufactured  goods, 
of  jean,  and  cotton,  and  linen  yarn,  fine  and  tow  linen,  to 
the  value  of  four  hundred  and  forty-eight  pounds,  five  shill- 
ings, eleven  pence,  one-half  penny.  By  the  first  of  No- 
vember the  manufactory  had  made  in  addition:  jeans,  759^ 
yards;  corduroy,  383^  yards;  flowered  cotton,  39  yards; 
cottons,  2,095  yards;  flax  linen,  123  yards;  tow  linen,  494 
yards;  bird's-eye,  123  yards, — making  a  total  of  4,016  yards. 
The  cotton  yarn  sold  in  Philadelphia  for  one  dollar  a  pound. 
There  were  also  about  two  hundred  and  forty  yards  of 
different  goods  in  the  looms,  amounting  in  all  to  11,367 
yards,  and  185  pounds  of  plain  and  colored  knitting  thread 
had  been  made  by  the  twisting  mill.  190  yards  of  cotton 
had  been  printed,  showing  that  by  November,  1788,  the 
output  was  considerable.  None  of  these  early  efforts 
amounted  to  much  because  of  the  better  goods  turned  out 
by  the  more  perfect  machines  of  English  manufacturers. 
Then,  too,  from  1782  to  1789  the  poverty  and  business  de- 
pression in  the  United  States  were  wide-spread,  and  proved 
a  serious  obstacle  to  the  successful  starting  of  new  enter- 
prises. The  manufactory  was  finally  burned  March  24, 
1790,  and  the  mill  in  which  horse-power  ran  some  of  the 
machines  was  not  rebuilt. 


FIRST   COTTON  MILL   IN  NEW   ENGLAND 

The  first  cotton  mill  in  New  England,  if  not  in  America, 
was  that  established  by  the  proprietors  of  the  Beverly 
Cotton  Manufactory  at  Beverly,  Mass.  The  production 
of  cotton  goods  at  their  mill  preceded  by  at  least  a  year 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  151 

the  first  products  of  Samuel  Slater's  mill  at  Pawtucket, 
but  seems  to  have  been  a  little  later  than  the  establish- 
ment of  cotton  manufacturing  by  the  Pennsylvania  Society 
for  Promoting  Manufactures  and  Useful  Arts  in  Philadel- 
phia. Unsuccessful  attempts  at  spinning  and  weaving  cot- 
ton had  been  made  in  1780  at  Worcester. 

The  interest  in  cotton  manufacturing  had  been  greatly 
stimulated  by  the  action  of  the  legislature  of  Massachusetts 
in  1786,  and  therefore  before  the  thirteen  States  had  become 
the  United  States  of  America.  This  legislature  had  on 
the  25th  of  October,  1786,  appointed  a  committee  of  three — 
Mr.  Richard  Cranch  of  the  Senate  and  Mr.  Clarke  and 
Mr.  Bowdoin  of  the  House — "to  view  any  new  invented 
machines  that  are  making  within  this  Commonwealth  for 
the  purpose  of  manufacturing  sheep's  and  cotton  wool, 
and  report  what  measures  are  proper  for  the  Legislature  to 
take  to  encourage  the  same." 

The  committee  examined  at  the  works  of  Colonel  Hugh 
Orr,  the  machines  for  carding  and  spinning  that  had  been 
made  at  Bridgewater,  by  Robert  and  Alexander  Barr,  and 
at  the  suggestion  of  the  committee  the  legislature  granted 
the  Barrs  two  hundred  pounds  to  enable  them  to  com- 
plete three  machines,  a  roving  machine,  and  to  construct 
several  other  machines  as  might  be  necessary  for  carding, 
roping,  and  spinning  cotton  and  wool. 

Colonel  Orr  was  a  Scotchman  who  had  settled  in  Bridge- 
water  in  1740  and  had  been  engaged  in  the  manufacture 
of  firearms.  At  the  commencement  of  the  Revolution  he 
had  made  the  first  cannon  produced  in  the  country  by 
boring  a  solid  casting.  Having  become  interested  in  the 
carding  and  spinning  machines  which  he  learned  were  being 
made  in  England,  he  had  successfully  urged  Robert  and 
Alexander  Barr,  two  brothers,  who  were  skilful  Scotch 
mechanics,  to  come  to  America  and  construct  textile  ma- 
chinery at  Orr's  works. 

The  Massachusetts  legislature  continued  to  watch  with 


152  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

much  interest  the  progress  of  the  Barrs,  and  on  March  8, 
1787,  Richard  Cranch  was  appointed  by  the  Senate  "with 
such  as  the  House  should  join  to  examine  the  machines 
which  are  now  nearly  completed  and  to  inspect  and  allow 
the  account  of  Robert  and  Alexander  Barr  and  also  to 
report  to  the  next  General  Court,  what  gratuity  in  their 
opinion  the  said  Robert  and  Alexander  justly  deserve,  as 
a  reward  for  their  ingenuity  in  forming  these  machines,  and 
as  an  encouragement  for  their  public  spirit  in  making  them 
known  to  this  Commonwealth."  The  committee  passed 
their  account  for  one  hundred  and  eighty-nine  pounds  and 
twelve  shillings,  which  included  the  expense  of  transport- 
ing the  machines  to  and  from  Boston,  that  the  legislature 
could  see  them. 

Thomas  Somers,  a  Scotchman  who  had  been  a  midship- 
man in  the  English  navy,  petitioned  the  legislature  of 
Massachusetts,  Feb.  15,  1787,  on  the  subject  of  textile 
machinery,  and  represented  that  in  the  fall  of  1785,  while 
he  was  residing  in  Baltimore,  tradesmen  and  manufact- 
urers of  that  city  had  been  influenced  by  a  circular  letter 
sent  by  a  committee  of  the  tradesmen  and  manufacturers  of 
Boston  to  form  themselves  into  an  association  for  applying 
to  the  legislature  in  behalf  of  American  manufacture. 
Somers  said  he  had  been  brought  up  in  cotton  manufact- 
uring, and,  being  willing  to  do  what  lay  in  his  power  to  in- 
troduce the  manufacture  in  America,  at  his  own  risk  and 
expense  had  gone  to  England  to  prepare  machines  for  card- 
ing and  spinning  cotton.  He  found  after  much  difficulty 
that  he  could  only  secure  descriptions  and  models  of  the 
textile  machines.  With  these  he  had  returned  to  Balti- 
more. Finding  that  the  merchants  of  Baltimore  were  very 
dilatory  about  encouraging  the  matter,  he  resolved  to  take 
the  advice  of  friends  and  try  his  success  in  Boston. 

To  encourage  the  textile  manufacture  and  to  give  Somers 
an  opportunity  to  prove  his  ability  to  perfect  the  manu- 
facture, the  legislature,  March  8, 1787,  granted  him  twenty 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  153 

pounds,  which  were  deposited  with  Colonel  Orr,  who  was 
made  a  committee  to  supervise  the  expenditure.  Somers, 
under  the  direction  of  Orr,  constructed  other  textile  ma- 
chinery in  addition  to  that  already  made  by  the  Barrs,  and 
about  the  same  time  Mr.  Orr  employed  a  Scotchman  by 
the  name  of  McClure  to  weave  jeans  and  corduroy  by  hand 
with  the  fly  shuttle.  This  was  probably  the  first  use  in 
America  of  the  fly  shuttle. 

The  legislature  on  May  2,  1787,  discharged  the  Barrs 
from  any  obligations  under  the  grant  of  two  hundred  pounds, 
and  granted  them  six  tickets  in  the  land  lottery  which  had 
no  blanks.  It  was  further  provided  that  the  machines 
they  and  Somers  had  made  should  be  left  in  charge  of 
Colonel  Orr,  with  the  proviso  that  he  should  "  explain  to 
such  citizens  as  may  apply  for  the  same  the  principles  on 
which  said  machines  are  constructed  and  the  advantages 
arising  from  their  use,  and  also  to  allow  them  to  see  the 
machines  at  work."  These  machines  were  subsequently 
known  as  "The  State  Models,"  and  the  ones  made  in  1786 
by  the  Barrs  were  the  first  jennies  and  stock  cards  made  in 
the  United  States.  They  served  as  the  models  from  which 
many  who  were  interested  in  the  construction  of  textile 
mills  got  their  ideas  for  the  machinery  which  was  first 
used.  But  these  models  were  very  imperfect  and  of  little 
use. 

The  legislature  had  also  provided  that  public  notice 
of  the  machines  be  given  by  advertising  three  weeks  con- 
secutively in  Adams  and  Nourse's  newspaper  that  the 
models  could  be  seen  and  examined  at  Colonel  Orr's  in 
Bridgewater.  They  also  included  crude  reproductions  of 
Arkwright's  roller  spinning  and  other  textile  improve- 
ments, but  they  all  had  vital  defects  which  made  them  im- 
practical, so  that  Samuel  Slater  constructed  the  first  practical 
Arkwright  machines  in  America. 

These  Bridgewater  experiments  centred  attention  on 
the  possibilities  of  the  textile  industry,  and  undoubtedly 


154  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

influenced  the  proprietors  of  the  Beverly  factory  to  take  up 
cotton  spinning.  The  cotton  used  in  these  Bridgewater 
experiments,  as  well  as  that  used  later  at  the  Beverly  factory, 
came  from  Barbadoes,  Surinam,  Pernambuco,  Cayenne,  and 
other  places  in  the  West  Indies  and  South  America,  and 
was  imported  in  exchange  for  fish  which  New  England  ex- 
ported. The  cotton  was  often  mixed  with  linen  or  sheep's 
wool,  and  was  originally  sold  in  the  shops  by  the  pound  for 
domestic  use. 

One  of  the  prime  movers  in  the  organization  of  the  Bev- 
erly cotton  manufacture  was  the  Hon.  George  Cabot, 
who  wrote  to  Alexander  Hamilton,  the  first  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  and  to  Benjamin  Goodhue,  Massachusetts' 
first  member  of  Congress,  that  the  Beverly  manufacturers 
were  engaged  in  the  cotton  industry  as  early  as  October, 
1787.  The  Salem  Mercury  on  April  22,  1788,  stated  that 
"several  public-spirited  gentlemen  in  Beverly  have  procured 
a  complete  set  of  machines  for  carding  and  spinning  cot- 
ton, with  which  an  experiment  was  made  a  few  days  ago, 
answering  the  warmest  wishes  of  the  proprietors.  The 
jenny  spun  sixty  threads  at  a  time,  and  with  carding  ma- 
chine forty  pounds  of  cotton  can  be  well  carded  in  a  day, — 
the  warping  machines,  and  the  other  tools  and  machin- 
ery, part  of  which  go  by  water,  are  all  complete, — perform 
their  various  operations  to  great  advantage,  and  promise 
much  benefit  to  the  public  and  emolument  to  the  patriotic 
adventurers." 

A  few  weeks  later  the  same  newspaper  said  that  a  "Mr. 
Leonard  and  Mr.  Somers,"  who  understood  the  making 
and  finishing  of  velvets,  corduroys,  jeans,  fustians,  denims, 
marseilles  quiltings,  dimity,  muslins,  etc.,  had  introduced 
into  Beverly  the  machines  for  carding  and  spinning.  They 
had  the  patronage  of  the  Hon.  George  Cabot,  who  had 
secured  the  influence  of  a  number  of  gentlemen  in  Beverly 
to  organize  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  the  industries. 


ARKWRIGHT'S  ORIGINAL  WATER  FRAME  WITH  THE  SPECIFICATIONS 
ON  THE  ORIGINAL  PATENT  PAPERS  TAKEN  OUT  BY  HIM  ON  JULY 
15.  1769. 

"Now  know  ye  that  I,  the  said  Richard  Arkwright,  do  hereby  describe 
and  ascertain  the  nature  of  my  said  invention,  and  declare  that  the  plan 
thereof  drawn  in  the  margin  of  these  presents  is  composed  of  the  following 
particulars,  (that  is  to  say)  A,  the  Cogg  Wheel  and  Shaft,  which  receive 
their  motion  from  a  horse.  B,  the  Drum  or  Wheel  which  turns  C,  a  belt  of 
leather,  and  gives  motion  to  the  whole  machine.  D,  a  lead  weight,  which 
keeps  F,  the  small  drum,  steady  to  E,  the  forcing  Wheel.  G,  the  shaft 
of  wood  which  gives  motion  to  the  Wheel  H,  and  continues  it  to  /,  four 
pair  of  Rollers,  (the  form  of  which  are  drawn  in  the  margin,)  which  act  by 
tooth  and  pinion  made  of  brass  and  steel  nuts  fixt  in  two  iron  plates  K. 
That  part  of  the  roller  which  the  cotton  runs  through  is  covered  with  wood, 
the  top  Roller  with  leather,  and  the  bottom  one  fluted,  which  lets  the 
Cotton,  &c.  through  it;  by  one  pair  of  Rollers  moving  quicker  than  the 
other,  draws  it  finer  for  twisting,  which  is  performed  by  the  spindles  T. 
K,  the  two  iron  plates  described  above.  L,  four  large  Bobbins  with  cotton 
rovings  on,  conducted  between  Rollers  at  the  back.  Jf,  the  four  threads 
carried  to  the  Bobbins  and  Spindles  by  four  small  wires  fixt  across  the 
frame  in  the  slip  of  wood  V .  N,  iron  leavers  with  small  lead  weights  hang- 
ing to  the  Rollers  by  Pulleys,  which  keep  the  Rollers  close  to  each  other.  0, 
a  cross  piece  of  wood  to  which  the  leavers  are  fixed.  P,  the  Bobbins  and 
Spindles.  Q,  Flyers  made  of  wood,  with  small  wires  on  the  side,  which 
lead  the  thread  to  the  bobbins.  7?,  small  worsted  bands  put  about  the  whirl 
of  the  bobbins,  the  screwing  of  which  tight  or  easy  causes  the  bobbins  to 
wind  up  the  thread  faster  or  slower.  S,  the  four  whirls  of  the  spindles. 
T,  the  four  Spindles,  which  run  in  iron  plates.  V,  explained  in  letter  M. 
W,  a  wooden  frame  of  the  whole  machine." 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  155 


FIRST   TEXTILE   TRADE-MARK 

These  men,  who  on  June  6,  1788,  petitioned  the  legis- 
lature for  incorporation,  which  was  granted  on  Feb.  3, 
1789,  were  John  Cabot,  George  Cabot,  Deborah  and  An- 
drew Cabot,  Moses  Brown,  Joshua  Fisher,  Israel  Thorn- 
dike,  James  Leonard,  Thomas  Somers  and  Isaac  Chapman, 
of  Beverly,  and  Henry  Higginson,  of  Boston.  They  were 
given  permission  to  hold  real  estate  to  the  amount  of  ten 
thousand  pounds  and  personal  estate  to  the  amount  of 
eighty  thousand  pounds  for  the  purpose  of  manufacturing 
textiles;  "and  be  it  further  enacted  by  the  state  aforesaid," 
read  the  charter,  "that  all  goods  which  may  be  manu- 
factured by  the  said  corporation,  shall  have  a  label  of  lead 
affixed  to  one  end  thereof,  which  shall  have  the  same  im- 
pression with  the  seal  of  the  said  corporation,  and  that  if 
any  person  shall  knowingly  use  a  like  seal  or  label  with 
that  used  by  said  corporation,  by  annexing  same  to  any 
cotton  or  cotton  and  linen  goods,  not  manufactured  by  said 
corporation  with  a  view  of  vending  or  distributing  thereof, 
as  the  proper  manufacture  of  the  said  corporation,  every 
person  so  offending  shall  forfeit  and  pay  treble  the  value 
of  such  goods,  to  be  sued  for  and  recovered  for  the  use  of 
said  corporation,  by  action  of  debt,  in  any  court  of  record 
proper  to  try  the  same." 

This  shows  conclusively  the  first  cotton  mill  in  New 
England  was  wise  enough  to  trade-mark  its  goods,  and  it 
also  advertised  them  for  sale  in  Salem  and  Beverly  under 
the  trade-mark. 

The  five  or  six  acres  on  which  the  factory  stood  adjoined 
the  Beverly  Tavern  on  "the  road  from  Mr.  Oliver's  meet- 
ing-house to  Beverly  Ferry,"  and  was  purchased  Aug.  18, 
1788,  for  eighty  pounds  and  five  shillings,  by  John  Cabot, 
merchant,  and  Joshua  Fisher,  physician.  Work  was  at 
once  commenced  on  the  mill,  and  before  Jan.  6,  1789, 
it  was  completed.  The  Salem  Mercury  speaks  of  the 


156  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

"promising  cotton  manufactory  at  Beverly,"  and  it  is 
described  as  "a  plain  three  story  building  of  brick,  meas- 
uring about  sixty  by  twenty-five  feet  with  a  pitching 
shingled  roof,  and  a  deep  basement,  in  one  end  of  which 
moved  a  heavy  pair  of  horses  to  furnish  rotary  power." 
The  horses  were  driven  by  a  boy,  Joshua  Herrick,  of  Maine, 
who  afterwards  became  a  member  of  Congress.  When  the 
horses  went  too  fast,  Mr.  Somers  would  call  out  the  win- 
dow, "Hold  on  there!  not  so  fast!  Slower!"  and  Herrick 
would  slow  up,  but  soon  he  would  forget  and  speed  up 
again,  when  again  Somers  would  cry  out,  "Hold  up!" 
and  this  continued  most  of  the  day.  In  a  corner  of  the  lot 
stood  a  small  wooden  dye-house.  The  mill  stood  about 
seventy  feet  behind  the  tavern  yard. 

In  a  letter  written  to  Alexander  Hamilton  by  George 
Cabot,  Sept.  6,  1791,  the  number  of  employees  is  given  as 
forty,  thirty-nine  of  whom  were  native.  The  machines 
were  enumerated  as  follows:  "one  carding  machine  with 
the  labor  of  one  man  carded  fifteen  pounds  per  day,  and 
with  the  labor  of  two  men  was  capable  of  carding  thirty 
pounds  per  day;  nine  spinning  jennies,  of  sixty  to  eighty- 
four  spindles  each;  one  doubling  and  twisting  machine, 
constructed  on  the  principle  of  the  jenny;  one  stubbing 
machine,  or  coarse  jenny,  to  prepare  the  ropings  for  the 
finest  jennies,  whereon  they  are  fitted  for  doubling  and 
twisting;  one  warping  mill,  sufficient  to  perform  this  part 
of  the  work  for  a  very  extensive  manufactory;  sixteen  looms 
with  flying  shuttle,  ten  of  which  are  sufficient  to  weave  all 
the  yarn  our  present  spinners  can  finish;  two  cutting  frames, 
with  knives,  guides,  etc.;  one  burner  and  furnace,  with 
apparatus  to  singe  the  goods;  apparatus  for  coloring,  dry- 
ing, etc." 

According  also  to  Mr.  Cabot,  actual  expenditures  on  the 
enterprise  had  been  about  $14,000;  of  which  the  build- 
ing had  cost  $3,000,  machinery  and  apparatus  $2,000, 
goods  and  unwrought  material  $4,000,  sunk  in  waste  of 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  157 

materials,  extraordinary  cost  of  first  machines,  in  main- 
taining learners  and  compensating  teachers,  etc.,  $5,000. 
He  wrote  that  the  net  loss  to  the  manufacturers  had  been 
about  $10,000  and  the  interest  on  their  money,  and  that  the 
legislature  of  Massachusetts  had  granted  aids  in  lands  and 
lottery  tickets  to  about  $4,000.  The  mill  was  then  turning 
out  8,000  to  10,000  yards  per  year. 

The  incorporators  found  from  the  outset  of  their  enter- 
prise the  construction  of  the  proper  machinery  not  only 
difficult,  but  expensive,  and  they  applied  to  the  legislature 
for  aid,  and  on  Feb.  17,  1789,  were  granted  five  hun- 
dred pounds,  to  be  paid  from  the  proceeds  of  eastern  lands 
of  the  Commonwealth,  with  the  condition  that  the  petition- 
ers should  manufacture,  within  seven  years  from  the  date 
of  the  grant,  cotton  and  cotton  and  linen  goods  of  a  quality 
usually  imported  to  the  amount  of  fifty  thousand  yards. 
As  the  grantees  found  the  eastern  lands  not  available  for 
raising  the  money  they  required,  in  June  they  again  peti- 
tioned the  legislature,  representing  they  had  expended 
about  four  thousand  pounds,  and  that  the  present  value 
of  this  stock  was  not  equal  to  two  thousand  pounds,  and 
that,  owing  to  the  cost  of  machines  (a  carding  machine  is 
cited  as  costing  eleven  hundred  pounds)  and  the  difficulty 
and  expense  of  carrying  on  the  business,  they  must  have 
some  "very  considerable  advancement." 

The  House  granted  them  thirteen  hundred  pounds  to  be 
obtained  from  a  lottery,  but  the  Senate  refused  the  grant, 
and  allowed  seven  hundred  pounds  on  March  4,  1791,  to 
be  raised  by  lottery. 

Washington  made  a  tour  of  New  England  in  1789,  and 
on  October  30  took  breakfast  with  George  Cabot,  and 
afterward  visited  the  cotton  mill  on  his  way  to  Portsmouth. 
Senator  Henry  Cabot  Lodge,  in  his  "Some  Early  Mem- 
ories," says  that  his  grandfather,  Henry  Cabot,  the  son  of 
George  Cabot,  used  to  tell  how  he  hid  under  the  sideboard 
and  watched  the  " Father  of  his  Country"  at  breakfast 


158  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

with  his  father,  when  Washington  stopped  at  Senator  Lodge's 
great-grandfather's  house  on  this  occasion.  According  to 
the  Salem  Mercury  of  Nov.  3,  1789,  Washington  "was 
shown  in  the  lower  story  a  jenny  of  eighty-four  spindles, 
upon  which  some  of  the  manufacturers  were  spinning  warp; 
and  three  or  four  other  jennies  upon  which  they  were  spin- 
ning weft,  and  about  a  dozen  looms  upon  which  they  were 
weaving  cotton  denim,  thicksett,  corduroys,  velveret,  etc. 
In  the  middle  story  was  seen  a  roping  jenny  of  forty-two 
spindles  and  a  machine  on  which  a  person  usually  doubles 
and  twists  in  a  day  a  cotton  warp  of  fifty  yards.  In  the 
upper  story  were  exhibited  the  business  of  carding,  working, 
and  cutting;  and  in  a  contiguous  building  that  of  dressing 
on  the  stove."  The  goods  there  made  were  mostly  a  coarse 
fabric,  and  amounted  to  about  ten  thousand  yards. 

Washington,  under  date  of  Friday,  October  30,  wrote  in 
his  diary:  "After  passing  Beverly  two  miles  we  came  to  a 
cotton  manufactory,  which  seems  to  be  carried  on  with  spirit 
by  the  Cabots  principally.  In  this  manufactory  they  have 
the  new  invented  carding  and  spinning  machines;  one  of 
the  first  supplies  the  work,  and  four  of  the  latter;  one  of 
which  spins  eighty-four  threads  at  one  time  by  one  person. 
The  cotton  is  prepared  for  this  machine  by  being  first  lightly 
drawn  to  a  thread  on  the  common  wheel. 

"There  is  another  machine  for  doubling  and  twisting 
the  thread  for  particular  cloths.  This  also  does  many  at 
a  time.  For  winding  the  cotton  from  the  spindles  and 
preparing  it  for  the  warp  there  is  a  reel  which  expedites 
the  work  greatly.  A  number  of  looms,  fifteen  or  sixteen, 
were  at  work  with  spring-shuttles,  which  do  more  than 
double  work.  In  short,  the  whole  seemed  perfect,  and  the 
cotton  stuffs  which  they  turn  out  excellent  of  their  kind, 
warp  and  filling  both  are  now  of  cotton." 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  159 


FIRST   TEXTILE  ADVERTISING 

The  Beverly  goods  were  advertised  for  sale  from  Decem- 
ber, 1789.  Baker  &  Allen,  of  Beverly,  were  selling  the 
corduroys  as  the  equal  in  price  and  quality  with  imported 
fabrics,  and  Francis  Cabot  at  Salem  also  sold  corduroys, 
royal  ribs,  thicksett,  stockinette,  and  rib  delures,  whole- 
sale and  retail,  and  all  made  in  Beverly  and  at  lower  prices 
than  English  goods  of  the  same  quality.  In  fact,  by  1790 
the  wear  of  Beverly  corduroys  is  said  to  have  been  common. 
Despite  every  effort,  it  was  impossible  to  make  the  early 
mills  pay,  and  we  soon  find  Moses  Brown,  the  patron  of 
Slater,  writing  to  Moses  Brown,  of  Beverly,  his  namesake, 
asking  the  co-operation  of  the  Beverly  proprietors  in  peti- 
tioning Congress  for  an  additional  duty  on  cotton  goods. 
It  was  also  with  difficulty  that  the  employees  of  the 
Beverly  mill  could  be  kept,  because  as  fast  as  they  mas- 
tered the  business  they  were  enticed  away  by  other  manu- 
facturers. 

In  fact,  the  Beverly  enterprise  met  with  more  difficulties 
than  usually  confront  a  new  industry,  and  finally,  shortly 
before  the  Embargo  Act  of  1807,  which  paralyzed  the 
industry,  passed  out  of  existence.  A  deed  of  land  in  1813 
describes  it  as  follows:  "A  certain  piece  of  land  with  brick 
buildings  now  thereon  standing,  with  all  the  machinery 
and  utensils  formerly  used  for  the  manufacture  of  cotton 
which  remain  unsold,"  and  until  this  date  the  machines 
and  land  were  unsold.  The  old  brick  factory  was  finally 
burned  in  1828. 


BOSTON  SAIL  CLOTH  FACTORY 

As  the  result  of  a  bounty  offered  by  the  Massachusetts 
legislature  in  1788  for  home -manufactured  sail  cloth,  etc., 
a  number  of  Boston  merchants  formed  a  company  called 
the  Boston  Sail  Cloth  Factory.  Land  which  was  probably 


160  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

an  open  pasture  was  rented  for  nine  pounds  a  year  at  the 
corner  of  Frog  Lane,  now  Boylston  Street,  and  Holyoke, 
now  Tremont  Street,  and  by  1789  sixteen  women  and  as 
many  girls  were  working  twenty -eight  looms  and  were 
turning  out  forty  yards  per  week. 

Washington,  who  described  it  on  his  New  England  visit 
in  1789,  wrote,  "They  have  twenty-eight  looms  and  four- 
teen girls,  spinning  with  both  hands,  the  flax  being  fastened 
to  the  waist.  Children,  (girls)  turn  the  wheels  for  them; 
and  with  this  assistance  each  spinner  can  turn  out  fourteen 
pounds  of  thread  a  day  when  they  stick  to  it;  but  as  they 
are  paid  by  the  piece  or  the  work  they  do,  there  is  no  other 
restraint  upon  them  but  to  come  at  eight  o'clock  in  the 
morning  and  return  at  six  in  the  evening.  They  are  the 
daughters  of  decayed  families;  none  others  are  admitted." 

In  1792  about  four  hundred  employees  were  turning 
out  about  fifty  pieces  of  linen  duck  a  week.  As  described 
in  1789  in  the  Gazette  of  the  United  States,  "The  manu- 
facturing house  for  duck  in  Boston  is  pleasantly  situated 
in  the  south  west  part  of  the  town.  The  building  is  180 
feet  long,  two  stories  high.  The  upper  part  is  improved  by 
the  spinners  of  chains  or  warp  of  the  duck.  Sixteen  young 
women  and  as  many  girls  under  the  direction  of  a  steady 
matron  are  here  employed.  In  the  lower  part  there  are 
twenty-eight  looms  which  can  turn  out  two  pieces  of  duck 
of  forty  yards  each  per  week." 

A  high  degree  of  perfection  was  attained,  and  the  business 
was  very  prosperous  until  about  1795,  when  the  bounty 
was  withdrawn  and  the  business  gradually  died.  In  the 
mean  time,  however,  duck  had  begun  to  be  manufactured 
in  Haverhill,  Springfield,  and  in  New  Hampshire  and  Con- 
necticut. 

About  the  same  time  various  other  attempts  at  duck 
manufacturing  were  made  elsewhere,  one  of  them  being 
in  Worcester,  where  a  factory  was  erected  in  1789,  and  on 
April  30,  1789,  the  first  piece  of  corduroy  was  turned  out. 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  161 

Fustians,  ribs,  and  corduroys  were  subsequently  offered 
for  sale.  The  enterprise,  however,  was  not  a  success,  and 
within  a  few  years  after  it  started  passed  out  of  existence. 
Other  attempts  were  made  at  Colchester,  Conn.,  at  Exeter, 
N.H.,  at  Haverhill,  Mass.,  and  also  at  Springfield,  Salem,  and 
Stratford. 


COMMENCEMENT   OF  THE  COTTON  INDUSTRY  IN  RHODE  ISLAND 

Cotton  manufacturing  began  in  Rhode  Island  in  1788, 
and  was  due  to  the  efforts  of  Daniel  Anthony,  Andrew 
Dexter,  and  Lewis  Peck,  of  Providence,  who  formed  a 
partnership  to  manufacture  "Home  Spun  Cloth."  It 
was  the  original  purpose  to  spin  by  hand  and  make  linen 
jeans  with  linen  warp  and  cotton  filling,  but,  learning  of 
the  Bridgewater  experiments,  Anthony  and  John  Reynolds, 
of  East  Greenwich,  who  had  begun  the  making  of  woolens, 
visited  Bridgewater  and  made  a  sketch  of  the  machine. 
Nothing  was  done  with  this  sketch,  for  soon  after  they 
proceeded  to  build  a  jenny  from  a  model  of  the  machine 
that  Somers  had  at  Beverly.  The  construction  of  the 
woodwork  was  done  by  Richard  Anthony,  while  the  spindles 
and  brasswork  were  made  by  Daniel  Jackson,  a  coppersmith, 
of  Providence.  The  jenny  was  set  up  in  a  private  house, 
but  was  subsequently  removed  to  a  chamber  in  the  market 
house,  Providence. 

A  machine  for  carding  cotton  spun  upon  the  lines  of  the 
sketch  of  a  similar  machine  seen  at  Beverly  was  made  by 
Joshua  Lindly,  of  Providence,  and  a  spinning  machine, 
somewhat  like  the  Arkwright  frame,  but  very  imperfect, 
was  also  built.  It  had  eight  heads  of  four  spindles  each, 
and  was  worked  by  a  crank  turned  by  hand.  John  Bailey, 
an  ingenious  clock  maker,  of  Pembroke,  Mass.,  made  the 
first  head,  while  the  other  seven,  together  with  the  brass- 
work  and  spindles,  were  the  work  of  Daniel  Jackson,  the 
woodwork  being  by  Joshua  Lindly.  In  1787  Joseph  Alex- 


162  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

ander  and  James  McKerris,  expert  fly -shuttle  weavers, 
had  arrived  in  Providence,  and  were  engaged  to  make 
corduroy.  Alexander  went  to  work  in  Providence,  while 
McKerris  took  up  the  work  in  East  Greenwich.  The 
first  fly  shuttle  in  Rhode  Island  was  built  according  to 
the  directions  of  Alexander,  and  was  operated  in  the  market- 
house  chamber.  A  piece  of  corduroy  was  woven,  of  a  linen 
warp  and  filling  of  cotton,  but,  as  there  was  no  one  who 
knew  how  to  cut  the  corduroy  or  to  finish  it  so  as  to  raise 
the  pile,  the  manufacture  was  abandoned,  and  Alexander 
went  to  Philadelphia.  McKerris  worked  in  East  Green- 
wich for  some  years. 

The  spinning  frame  which  had  been  made  from  the 
State  model,  after  being  tried  in  Providence,  was  taken  to 
Pawtucket  and  attached  to  a  wheel  propelled  by  water,  but 
the  machine  was  so  imperfect  that  it  was  set  too  hard  to 
work  by  hand.  Eventually,  the  machine  was  sold  to  Moses 
Brown,  of  Providence,  who  had  become  much  interested 
in  the  textile  industry.  Brown,  together  with  Smith  Brown, 
a  kinsman,  also  purchased  the  stocking  loom  of  John  Fullem, 
an  Irishman,  who  had  some  time  in  1788  commenced 
stocking  weaving  in  East  Greenwich,  but,  not  prospering, 
went  to  Providence. 

After  selling  his  loom,  Fullem  operated  it  under  the 
superintendence  of  Smith  Brown,  but  the  business,  not  prov- 
ing successful,  was  given  up.  In  the  mean  time,  calico 
printing  had  been  introduced  by  Herman  Vandausen,  a 
German  calico  printer,  who  settled  in  East  Greenwich. 
He  cut  his  design  on  wood,  and  printed  for  those  who  home- 
spun calico.  This  calico  was  little  inferior  to  that  im- 
ported from  India,  but  Mr.  Moses  Brown,  who  was  then 
trading  with  India  and  to  whom  the  domestic  cloth  was 
shown,  decided  it  was  cheaper  to  import  the  Indian  fabrics. 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  163 


FIRST  WOOLEN  MILL 

The  first  woolen  factory  in  which  water  power  was  used, 
other  than  in  the  fulling  process  in  which  water  power 
was  early  employed,  and  in  fact  the  first  large  woolen  mill 
in  America,  was  that  of  the  Hartford  Woolen  Manufactory, 
which  was  organized  April  15,  1788,  and  started  at  Hart- 
ford, Conn.,  by  a  number  of  shareholders,  of  whom  Jere- 
miah Wadsworth  was  the  largest.  Other  stockholders  were 
Oliver  Wolcott,  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
and  Peter  Colt,  uncle  of  the  man  who  originated  Colt's 
revolver.  On  the  books  of  the  company  appears  under 
date  of  Dec.  27, 1788,  a  charge  for  one  piece  of  smoke  cloth, 
23^  yards,  and  also  for  one  piece  of  Hartford  gray,  showing 
that  about  then  manufacturing  began. 

In  order  to  encourage  the  industry,  the  Connecticut 
General  Assembly  passed  a  resolution  exempting  the  build- 
ings and  employees  from  taxation,  and  offered  a  bounty  of 
one  cent  per  pound  upon  all  woolen  yarns  woven  into  cloth 
before  a  certain  date,  and  considerable  perfection  was  soon 
attained  in  the  production  of  the  best  cloths. 


WASHINGTON   INAUGURATED    IN    SUIT    OF   DOMESTIC   WOOLEN 

At  the  inauguration  of  Washington,  April  3,  1789,  the 
President,  Vice-President,  and  the  Connecticut  senators 
were  all  clothed  in  fabrics  made  by  this  mill.  Washington 
appeared  dressed  in  a  coat,  waistcoat,  breeches  of  fine  dark 
brown  cloth,  and  white  silk  stockings.  Plain  silver  buckles 
were  on  his  shoes,  his  head  uncovered,  and  his  hair  dressed 
after  the  prevailing  fashion  of  the  time.  In  a  letter  to 
General  Henry  Knox,  who  sent  him  the  suit,  Washington 
wrote  as  follows: — 

MT.  VERNON,  March  2,  1789. 

My  dear  Sir, — I  beg  of  you  to  accept  my  acknowledgment  of 
and  thanks  for  your  obliging  favors  of  the  12th,  16th,  and  19th 


164  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

of  last  month,  and  particularly  for  the  trouble  you  have  had  in 
procuring  and  forwarding  for  use,  a  suit  of  the  Hartford  Manu- 
facture. It  is  come  safe  and  exceeds  my  expectation.  I  will 
take  an  early  opportunity  of  paying  the  cost  of  it.  I  am  ever 
yours,  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

"The  cloth  is  of  as  fine  a  fabric,"  said  one  of  the  news- 
papers, describing  the  President's  suit,  "and  so  handsomely 
finished,  that  it  is  universally  mistaken  for  a  foreign  manu- 
factured superfine  cloth." 

The  proprietors  of  this  mill,  like  the  proprietors  of  the 
Beverly  manufactory,  believed  in  calling  the  public's  at- 
tention to  their  goods  by  advertising,  and  therefore  they 
inserted  in  the  Connecticut  Courant,  Sept.  14,  1789,  and 
also  in  1790,  this  advertisement: — 

"American  manufactured  woolens  for  sale  at  the  Hart- 
ford Woolen  Manufactory.  A  great  variety  of  cloths, 
sergings  and  coatings.  The  colors  may  be  relied  upon, 
being  principally  dyed  in  grain.  They  have  lately  estab- 
lished a  blue  dye  where  all  the  different  shades  from  a 
pearl  color  to  navy  blue  are  dyed."  On  Nov.  2,  1789,  an 
advertisement  read,  "A  great  variety  of  fine,  middling 
and  coarse,  broad  and  narrow  cloths,  serges,  coatings,  and 
baises,  etc.,  by  wholesale." 

In  the  year  from  September,  1788,  to  September,  1789, 
about  five  thousand  yards  of  cloth  were  made,  the  spinning 
only  being  done  outside  by  the  country  people.  Broad- 
cloths of  a  good,  but  not  first  quality  were  produced,  some 
of  which  sold  as  high  as  five  dollars  per  yard.  Their  Hart- 
ford gray  became  a  celebrated  cloth.  About  1789  one  cloth 
presser  finished  in  seven  months,  at  one  press,  8,133  yards, 
of  which  5,282  yards  were  fulled  coatings.  Cassimeres, 
serges,  and  everlastings  were  also  turned  out.  Early  in 
colonial  days  and  even  after  the  starting  of  the  Hartford 
Mill,  worsteds  that  were  woven  into  serges  and  everlastings 
were  spun  in  the  households. 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  165 

It  was  difficult  for  the  manufactory  to  get  ahead,  so  it 
secured  in  1790  from  the  General  Assembly  a  grant  of  a 
lottery  to  further  its  interests,  the  proceeds  being  used  for 
machinery,  implements,  and  increase  of  stock.  The  Con- 
necticut Courant,  Oct.  3,  1791,  could  report  that  the  manu- 
facture after  struggling  with  every  obstacle  began  to  flourish. 
"The  quality  of  the  cloths,  more  especially  the  coarser,  is 
acknowledged  on  all  hands  to  be  superior  to  English  of  the 
same  fineness.  It  is  an  undeniable  fact  that  the  coatings 
made  here  are  more  durable  than  the  English.  The  great 
objection  formerly  made  to  the  coloring  and  finishing  of 
the  cloths  is  now  removed,  it  being  agreed  by  the  best 
judges  that  the  difference  between  the  best  finish  English 
cloths  and  those  of  this  manufacture  is  hardly  perceivable." 
The  first  and  only  dividend  passed  by  the  company  was 
one  of  50  per  cent.,  which  was  declared  Dec.  10,  1794. 

The  sale  of  goods  was  not  rapid,  and,  as  the  demand 
seemed  to  be  for  imported  fabrics,  the  stock  accumulated 
so  fast  in  the  factory  that  it  finally  had  to  be  sold  at  auc- 
tion. The  business,  which  had  never  been  a  commercial 
success,  was  eventually  sold  in  1795  at  auction,  and  the 
greater  part  of  the  machinery  was  bought  by  Jeremiah 
Wadsworth,  who  for  a  while  carried  on  the  business.  It 
was  finally  given  up,  and  for  some  time  previous  to  April 
3,  1854,  when  the  building  (which  stood  on  the  bank  of 
Little  River  at  the  foot  of  Mulberry  Street)  was  burned, 
it  was  occupied  by  a  manufacturer  of  soap  and  candles. 


FIRST    WOOLEN    MILL    OPERATED    WITH    POWER    MACHINERY 

According  to  Royal  C.  Taft,  who  investigated  the  matter, 
the  first  woolen  mill  that  was  successfully  operated  in  the 
United  States  with  power  machinery  was  built  in  1794  at 
the  falls  of  the  Parker  River  in  Byfield  Parish  of  Newbury- 
port,  under  the  direction  of  John  and  Arthur  Scholfield, 
who  arrived  in  Boston  from  Saddleworth,  Yorkshire, 


166  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

England,  in  May,  1793,  and  went  to  live  in  Charlestown, 
not  far  from  Bunker  Hill.  Meeting  Jedediah  Morse, 
author  of  "Morse's  Geography  and  Gazetteer,"  and  telling 
him  of  their  knowledge  of  the  textile  industry  and  the  best 
methods  of  manufacturing,  he  became  interested,  and  in- 
troduced them  to  people  of  wealth  in  Newburyport,  who 
were  desirous  of  starting  the  industry  there,  and  by  whom 
they  were  engaged  to  erect  the  mill. 

Most  of  the  machinery  was  built  in  Newburyport  by 
Messrs.  Standring,  Armstrong,  and  Guppy.  Benjamin 
Greenleaf,  Theophilus  Parsons,  William  Bartlett,  Moses 
Brown,  and  others  were  incorporated  as  the  proprietors  of 
the  Newburyport  Woolen  Manufactory,  with  a  capital  in 
real  estate  of  ten  thousand  pounds  and  in  personal  estate 
of  eighty  thousand  pounds,  and  here  was  constructed  and 
operated  the  first  carding  machine  for  wool  in  America. 
Until  the  mill  was  ready  to  contain  it,  it  was  worked  by 
hand.  John  Scholfield  was  employed  as  agent,  and  for 
years  the  business  was  successfully  conducted,  broadcloth 
and  flannel  being  made.  It  is  not  known  how  long  the  mill 
continued  in  operation,  but  it  was  burned  Oct.  29,  1859. 

Previous  to  the  Newburyport  enterprise  John  Manning 
had  in  1792  built  a  mill  in  Ipswich  upon  land  granted 
by  the  town,  in  which  broadcloths,  blankets,  and  flannels 
were  made,  all  the  work  of  carding,  spinning,  and  weaving 
being  done  by  hand.  The  mill  was  a  hundred  and  five  feet 
long  by  thirty -two  feet  wide,  two  stories  high,  and  built  of 
wood.  As  it  was  not  successful,  cotton  took  the  place  of 
wool,  but  this,  too,  failed  to  pay,  and  finally  in  1800  work 
stopped. 

After  being  with  the  Newburyport  Woolen  Mill  for  about 
five  years,  John  Scholfield  in  1789  hired  for  fourteen  years 
water  power  on  the  Oxoboro  River  in  Montville,  Conn., 
moved  there,  and  built  the  first  woolen  mill  in  Connecticut, 
which  he  operated  with  his  brother  Arthur  until  1806,  when 
he  sold  out  to  John  and  Nathan  Comstock.  In  this  same 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  167 

year  he  fitted  up  a  factory  he  had  bought  at  Stonington, 
Conn.,  and  operated  it. 

In  the  mean  time  Arthur  Scholfield,  who  had  gone  to 
Pittsfield  in  1800,  built  a  woolen  mill  there,  and  started 
operations  in  November,  1801;  and  on  Nov.  2,  1801,  his 
first  advertisement  appeared  in  the  Pittsfield  Sun,  advising 
the  people  of  Pittsfield  that  he  would  card  their  wool  and 
sell  them  woolens.  In  1804  John  Bissell,  a  leading  mer- 
chant of  Pittsfield,  who  had  gone  to  New  York  to  buy  goods, 
brought  home  two  pieces  of  Scholfield's  cloths,  gray  mixed 
broadcloth,  which  he  had  bought  for  imported  fabrics. 
James  Madison  in  1808  was  inaugurated  President  in  a 
suit  made  from  thirteen  yards  of  black  broadcloth  made  by 
John  Scholfield.  In  1809  Daniel  Day  built  a  mill  at  Ux- 
bridge,  Mass.,  twenty  by  forty  feet,  two  stories,  and  put 
in  a  carding  machine  and  picker,  later  adding  to  his  mill 
a  billy  and  jenny  for  weaving,  and  still  later  added  five 
hand  looms. 

The  situation  in  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  and 
Pennsylvania  when  Samuel  Slater  arrived  from  England 
in  1789  was  that  textile  manufacturing  of  both  cotton  and 
wool  goods  in  factories  on  a  scale  large  enough  to  meet 
some  of  the  domestic  demand  had  been  established,  and, 
though  not  a  commercial  success,  was  making  some  prog- 
ress. The  little  power  machinery  that  was  used  was  con- 
fined mainly  to  carding  machines  and  spinning  jennies, — 
imperfect  machines  which  were  either  domestic  attempts 
at  copying  the  machines  in  use  in  England  or  crude  pro- 
ductions of  American  inventors.  No  one  had  yet  succeeded 
in  water  spinning,  because  Arkwright's  machines  could  not 
be  obtained  from  England,  and,  despite  the  inducements 
held  out  by  various  commercial  bodies,  no  one  had  been 
able  to  make  practical  reproductions  of  the  English  ma- 
chines. The  arrival  of  Slater  marked  a  new  and  more 
flourishing  era  in  textile  making. 


CHAPTER  VII 

ERA  OF  SAMUEL  SLATER 

SLATER'S  ARRIVAL  IN  AMERICA — GOES  TO  PROVIDENCE — STARTS 

FIRST  COTTON  MILL  WITH  ARKWRIGHT*S  MACHINES  IN  AMERICA — 

PAYMENT  AND  DISCIPLINE  OF  EMPLOYEES — STARTS  HIS  SECOND 
MILL;  THE  FIRST  WITH  ARKWRIGHT  MACHINERY  IN  MASSA- 
CHUSETTS— FIRST  COMMISSION  HOUSES — SHEPARD  STARTS  MILL 
AT  WRENTHAM — OTHER  MILLS  START — WHITTENTON  COTTON 
MILLS — START  OF  THE  INDUSTRY  IN  CONNECTICUT — SPREAD 
OF  INDUSTRY  THROUGH  INFLUENCE  OF  SLATER — GILMORE's 
LOOM — BEGINNING  OF  POWER  WOOLEN  MILLS  IN  RHODE  ISLAND 
— SOUTHERN  DEVELOPMENT 

Samuel  Slater  has  been  rightly  called  the  father  of  the 
American  cotton  industry,  for  to  him  more  than  to  any  one 
else  was  due  the  construction  and  first  successful  operation 
in  America  of  Arkwright's  system  of  cotton  machines. 
Before  Slater  came  to  America,  all  attempts  to  make  Ark- 
wright's machinery  had  been  futile,  despite  the  many  in- 
ducements held  out  by  various  commercial  bodies  for 
practical  Arkwright  machines. 

Slater  was  the  son  of  a  yeoman  farmer  in  Belper,  Derby- 
shire, where  he  was  born  June  9,  1768,  and  was  early  ap- 
prenticed to  Jedediah  Strutt,  who  was  a  partner  of  Ark- 
wright, and  had  established  one  of  the  first  cotton  mills 
in  Belper.  He  was  with  Strutt,  who  was  a  friend  of  his 
father,  for  over  eight  years,  and  later  served  as  superin- 
tendent of  Strutt 's  mill,  so  that  he  had  a  comprehensive 
knowledge  of  Arkwright's  machines. 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  169 

SLATER'S  ARRIVAL  IN  AMERICA 

A  few  months  prior  to  November,  1789,  when  he  arrived 
in  New  York,  he  read  in  a  Philadelphia  paper  an  account 
of  a  bounty  of  a  hundred  pounds  granted  by  the  legislature 
of  Pennsylvania  to  a  person  who  had  imperfectly  succeeded 
in  constructing  a  carding  machine  to  make  rolls  for  jennies. 
The  account  also  told  of  the  offers  of  other  State  govern- 
ments to  encourage  manufactures,  and  the  great  need  in 
America  of  the  proper  textile  machines.  Pennsylvania, 
wishing  to  establish  the  cotton  industry,  had  put  a  duty 
on  fabrics  of  10  per  cent.  Influenced  by  the  pecuniary  re- 
ward that  America  offered  to  one  familiar  with  cotton 
spinning,  Slater  determined  to  emigrate  secretly.  Know- 
ing the  stringent  regulations  of  the  English  government 
to  prevent  a  knowledge  of  the  textile  machines  spreading 
abroad,  having  fixed  the  designs  of  Arkwright's  machines  in 
his  mind,  he  set  out  for  America  without  telling  even  his 
parents  of  his  intentions. 

He  had  intended  to  go  to  Philadelphia,  but  upon  his 
arrival  he  secured  work  with  the  New  York  Manufactur- 
ing Company.  Becoming  dissatisfied,  however,  with  his 
prospects,  and  learning,  from  the  captain  of  one  of  the 
Providence  packets,  of  Mr.  Moses  Brown's  interest  in  the 
textile  business,  Slater  wrote  to  Mr.  Brown,  Dec.  2,  1789, 
that,  as  he  had  learned  Mr.  Brown  "wanted  a  manager  of 
cotton  spinning,  etc.,  in  which  business"  he  flattered  him- 
self he  could  give  the  greatest  satisfaction,  "in  making 
machinery,  making  good  yarn,  either  for  stockings  or 
twist,  as  any  that  is  made  in  England,"  if  Mr.  Brown  was 
"not  provided  for,"  he  should  be  "glad  to  serve"  him. 
He  asked  Mr.  Brown  to  drop  him  a  line  "respecting  the 
amount  of  encouragement"  he  "wished  to  give."  Slater 
stated  that  he  had  "had  an  oversight  of  Sir  Richard  Ark- 
wright's works,"  and  was  "in  Mr.  Strutt's  mill  upwards 
of  eight  years,"  and  that  the  New  York  manufactory  had 


170  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

but  one  card,  two  machines,  and  two  spinning  jennies  which 
were  hardly  worth  using. 

The  New  York  manufactory  was  the  outgrowth  of 
"The  New  York  Society  for  the  Encouragement  of  Amer- 
ican Manufactures,"  which  was  organized  late  in  1788, 
and  made  at  first  only  linen  yarns  and  cloth;  for  their 
advertisement  read,  "For  sale  at  the  factory  on  Vesey 
Street,  a  quantity  of  brown  linen  sheeting,  linen  yarn  of 
the  first  quality,  hatchelled  flax,  tow  and  backings." 

In  reply  Moses  Brown  wrote  him  from  Providence  under 
date  of  Dec.  10,  1789,  that  "Almy  and  Brown  who  has 
the  business  in  the  cotton  line,"  which  Brown  began,  Almy 
being  his  son-in-law  and  Brown  a  kinsman,  "did  want  the 
assistance  of  a  person  skilled  in  the  frame  or  water  spinning." 
An  experiment  had  been  made,  but  it  had  failed,  as  no  one 
was  acquainted  with  the  business.  "We  hardly  know 
what  to  say  to  thee,  but  if  thou  thought  thou  couldst  per- 
fect and  conduct  them  to  profit,  if  thou  wilt  come  and  do 
it,  thou  shalt  have  all  the  profit  made  of  them  over  and 
above  the  interest  of  the  money  they  cost,  and  the  wear 
and  tear  of  them.  We  will  find  stock  and  be  repaid  in  yarn 
as  we  may  agree,  for  six  months.  And  this  we  do  for 
the  information  thou  can  give,  if  fully  acquainted  with  the 
business." 

The  letter  concluded,  "If  thy  present  situation  does 
not  come  up  to  what  thou  wishest,  and,  from  thy  knowl- 
edge of  the  business,  can  be  ascertained  of  the  advantages 
of  the  mills,  so  as  to  induce  thee  to  come  and  work  ours, 
and  have  the  credit  as  well  as  advantages  of  perfecting  the 
first  water  mill  in  America,  we  should  be  glad  to  engage 
thy  care  so  long  as  thee  can  be  made  profitable  to  both 
and  we  can  agree,  I  am  for  myself  and  Almy  and  Brown, 
thy  friend,  Moses  Brown." 


THE  STORY  OP  TEXTILES  171 

GOES  TO   PROVIDENCE 

Moses  Brown  was  a  retired  rich  merchant  of  Providence 
who  had  long  been  identified  with  the  East  India  trade, 
and  had  lately  become  interested  in  the  cotton  industry. 
He  had  purchased  and  installed  at  Pawtucket  the  imperfect 
machines  of  Daniel  Anthony,  Andrew  Dexter,  and  Lewis 
Peck,  and  with  his  two  relatives,  William  Almy  and  Smith 
Brown,  was  endeavoring  to  establish  the  cotton  spinning. 

Accordingly,  Slater,  Jan.  18,  1790,  went  to  Providence 
and  showed  Mr.  Brown  his  apprentice  indenture  with  Mr. 
Strutt,  and  Mr.  Brown  took  Slater  to  Pawtucket  and 
showed  him  the  machinery  that  had  failed  to  work.  When 
Slater  saw  the  machines,  he  shook  his  head  and  said: — 

" These  will  not  do:  they  are  good  for  nothing  in  their 
present  condition,  nor  can  they  be  made  to  answer."  It 
was  finally  proposed  that  Slater  should  build  wholly  new 
machines  after  the  Arkwright  patents,  but  Slater  would  not 
consent  until  he  was  promised  a  man  to  work  on  wood  who 
should  be  put  under  bonds  not  to  steal  the  patterns  or  dis- 
close the  nature  of  the  work. 

"Under  my  proposals,"  said  he,  "if  I  do  not  make  as 
good  yarn  as  they  do  in  England,  I  will  have  nothing  for 
my  services,  but  will  throw  the  whole  of  what  I  have  at- 
tempted over  the  border." 

Articles  of  partnership  were  drawn  up  April  5,  1790, 
between  William  Almy,  Smith  Brown,  and  Slater,  under 
which  they  furnished  the  capital  and  Slater  in  return  for 
constructing  the  machinery  and  spinning  the  cotton  was  to 
have  one-half  of  the  profits  and  own  one-half  of  the  ma- 
chinery. Almy  and  Brown  were  to  have  2}/£  per  cent, 
commission  for  the  purchase  of  stock  and  4  per  cent,  for 
selling  yarn.  Slater  was  charged  one-half  the  expense 
of  purchasing  and  constructing  the  machines  and  also  for 
his  living  expenses  while  developing  the  business.  The 
firm  was  to  be  Almy,  Brown  &  Slater. 


172  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

At  the  time  that  Slater  went  to  Pawtucket,  Almy  and 
Brown  were  manufacturing  billies  and  jennies,  and  had 
carding  machines  driven  by  men,  and  wove  and  finished 
jeans,  fustians,  thicksetts,  velveret,  the  work  being  done 
mostly  by  Irish  emigrants.  The  spinning  frame  shown 
Slater,  and  which  he  discarded,  was  the  one  that  Brown  had 
bought  from  Andrew  Dexter  and  Lewis  Peck.  It  made 
very  poor  yarn,  the  cotton  being  carded  by  hand  and 
"roped  on  a  wooden  wheel  by  a  female."  Brown  had  also 
bought  and  installed  at  Pawtucket  the  loom  with  fly  shut- 
tle that  Joseph  Alexander  and  another  Scotchman  un- 
successfully attempted  to  operate  in  the  market  house  at 
Providence. 

The  building  in  which  Slater's  new  machines  were  set 
up  was  the  fulling  mill  of  Ezekiel  Carpenter,  and  stood  on 
the  south-west  abutment  of  the  Pawtucket  bridge.  It  was 
swept  away  by  a  freshet  in  1807.  Slater  at  once  began  to 
build  a  water  frame  of  twenty-four  spindles,  two  carding 
machines,  and  the  drawing  and  roping  frames  necessary  for 
the  spinners,  and  soon  after  added  a  frame  of  forty-eight 
spindles.  Great  secrecy  was  maintained  while  the  ma- 
chinery was  being  made,  shutters  shielding  the  front  win- 
dows and  blinds  covering  the  back  windows.  Sylvanus 
Brown  cut  out  the  parts  of  the  spinning  machines  after 
Slater  had  chalked  them  out  on  the  wood. 

Oziel  Wilkinson,  the  clever  blacksmith  of  Pawtucket  with 
whom  Slater  boarded  and  whose  daughter  Hannah  Slater 
married,  made  with  his  sons,  under  Slater's  direction,  the 
iron-work  of  the  machines,  while  Pliny  Earl,  of  Leicester, 
made  the  cards.  At  first  the  cards  would  not  work,  and, 
when  Slater  pointed  out  the  defect,  Earl  and  he  beat 
them  to  the  proper  curve  with  a  piece  of  grindstone.  The 
power  was  supplied  at  the  start  by  a  wheel  propelled  by  an 
old  negro,  Samuel  Brunius  Jenks,  but  later  water  power 
was  installed. 

When  Slater  started  his  cards,  the  water  wheel  was  so 


jf. 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  173 

exposed  that  it  was  frozen  every  night,  and,  as  he  could  get 
no  one  to  bear  the  cold  of  the  water  in  order  to  break  the 
ice  to  start  the  wheel,  he  himself  had  to  spend  two  or  three 
hours  before  breakfast  every  morning  doing  the  work. 


STARTS    FIRST    COTTON    MILL    WITH    ARKWRIGHT  S    MACHINES 

IN  AMERICA 

It  took  Slater  longer  than  he  anticipated  to  finish  his 
frames,  so  that  it  was  not  until  Dec.  20, 1790,  that  he  started 
three  cards,  drawing  and  roving,  and  seventy-two  spindles 
in  the  clothier's  shop  of  Carpenter  at  Pawtucket,  where 
the  machines  were  set  up  and  driven  by  an  old  fulling 
water  wheel. 

The  cotton  in  Slater's  time  was  laid  by  hand,  a  handful 
of  it  being  taken  up  and  pulled  apart  with  both  hands. 
It  was  shifted  to  the  right  hand  to  get  the  staple  straight 
and  to  fix  the  handful  so  as  to  hold  it  firm.  Then  it  was 
applied  to  the  surface  of  the  breaker,  the  hand  being  moved 
horizontally  to  and  fro  until  the  cotton  was  prepared. 

Soon  they  had  several  thousand  pounds  of  yarn  on  hand. 
The  infant  industry  quickly  felt  the  need  of  government 
protection,  and  Moses  Brown  wrote,  April  19, 1791,  to  one  of 
the  proprietors  of  the  Beverly  Cotton  Manufactory  upon 
the  subject  of  applying  to  Congress  for  some  encouragement 
to  the  cotton  manufacturers,  to  take  the  shape  of  an  addi- 
tional duty  that  could  be  offered  as  a  bounty  partly  for 
sowing  and  raising  cotton  in  the  Southern  States  and  partly 
as  a  bounty  on  cotton  goods  that  might  be  manufactured. 

In  a  letter  to  John  Dexter,  Oct.  15,  1791,  Moses  Brown 
said  that,  previous  to  Slater's  arrival,  Almy  and  Brown 
had  been  making  warps  of  linen,  and  that  it  was  more 
than  twelve  months  before  Slater  could  complete  enough 
machinery  to  spin  perfectly  single  warps  of  cotton.  During 
the  time  that  Slater  was  working  on  his  machinery,  linen 
warps  were  woven,  and  the  spinning  jenny  was  operated 


174  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

in  the  cellars  of  dwelling-houses.  Finding  the  incon- 
venience of  sending  out  the  spinning,  Slater  and  his  partners 
erected  in  1793  a  new  mill,  called  the  "Old  Slater  Mill," 
and  dye-shop,  about  forty  feet  long,  twenty-six  feet  wide, 
two  stories  high,  with  an  attic;  and  later,  also,  additions 
were  built  for  singeing,  calendering,  and  other  machines. 
Alexander  Hamilton,  in  his  report  as  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury, made  Dec.  5,  1791,  said, — 

"The  manufactory  at  Providence  has  the  merit  of  being 
the  first  in  introducing  into  the  United  States  the  celebrated 
cotton  mill,  which  not  only  furnishes  materials  for  that 
manufactory  itself  but  for  the  supply  of  private  families, 
for  household  manufacture." 


PAYMENT  AND   DISCIPLINE   OF   EMPLOYEES 

According  to  Moses  Brown  the  manufacturing  of  the 
mill  yarn  was  done  by  children  from  eight  to  fourteen  years 
old.  Some  of  the  first  yarn  spun  by  Slater  was  as  fine  as 
No.  40,  and  with  some  of  the  first  cloth  made  from  the 
warp  was  sent  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  Before 
Slater  began  manufacturing,  a  yard  of  cloth  made  by  the 
wheel  and  loom  cost  fifty  cents,  and  never  less  than  forty 
cents.  A  few  years  later  it  could  be  bought  for  nine  or 
ten  cents. 

As  employees  received  but  eighty  cents  to  $1.30  and  $1.40 
per  week,  and  indoor  work  was  not  alluring,  it  was  difficult 
to  secure  the  right  kind  of  help.  Slater  introduced  the 
English  apprentice  system,  but  it  did  not  work,  and  was 
soon  given  up.  One  boy,  who  found  the  work  too  hard  and 
discipline  too  strict,  complained  to  a  companion,  who  replied, 
"Very  well,  act  like  the  devil,  and  Slater  will  lay  you  off." 

Slater  maintained  a  strict  yet  sort  of  paternal  care 
over  the  welfare  of  his  employees,  starting  in  1793  the 
first  Sunday-school  in  America,  and  also  day  schools  for 
the  workmen's  children.  The  first  market  for  Slater's  yarn 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  175 

was  Salem,  Hartford  the  next,  and  Philadelphia  the  third. 
The  first  commission  merchant  to  sell  yarn  was  Elijah 
Waring.  New  York  and  Boston  at  first  took  hardly  any, 
and  much  was  sold  at  the  mill. 

As  Slater  boarded  with  the  Wilkinson  family,  the  women 
were  naturally  much  interested  in  the  cotton  thread,  and 
finally  Hannah  (Mrs.  Slater)  conceived  the  idea  of  twisting 
some  fine  Surinam  cotton  yarn  Slater  had  spun,  in  place  of 
the  linen  twisted  yarn,  on  their  own  spinning  wheels  for 
sewing  thread,  and  finally  in  1793  made  the  first  cotton 
thread  made  in  America.  A  manufactory  for  the  thread 
was  established  by  the  Wilkinson  Brothers. 

When  Slater  commenced  his  work,  it  was  beyond  the 
power  of  America  to  compete  with  English  goods,  but  in 
fourteen  months  after  Slater  had  perfected  his  machines 
Brown  wrote  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  that  machinery 
and  mills  could  be  erected  within  one  year  to  supply  the 
whole  United  States  with  yarn  and  render  its  importation 
unnecessary. 

Within  two  years  of  Slater's  starting  to  manufacture 
he  had  accumulated  two  thousand  pounds  of  yarn,  which 
so  alarmed  the  careful  and  thrifty  Moses  Brown  that  he 
wrote  Slater, — 

"Thee  must  shut  down  thy  gates  or  thee  will  spin  all  my 
farms  into  cotton  yarn." 


STARTS  HIS  SECOND  MILL;    THE  FIRST  WITH  ARKWRIGHT 
MACHINERY    IN    MASSACHUSETTS 

Slater's  work  was  successful  from  the  outset,  and  in 
1799  he  formed  a  partnership  with  Oziel  Wilkinson,  his 
father-in-law,  Timothy  Green,  and  William  Wilkinson,  his 
brother-in-law,  under  the  firm  name  of  Samuel  Slater 
&  Co.,  and  built  in  1799  on  the  east  side  of  the  river  at 
Pawtucket,  in  what  was  Rehoboth,  Mass.,  the  mill  called 
the  "New  Mill,"  also  "The  White  Mill,"  which  was  the 


176  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

first  mill  to  use  Arkwright's  machines  in  Massachusetts. 
Slater  superintended  both  old  and  new  mills,  getting  $1.50 
a  day  per  mill,  or  $3  a  day  salary,  in  addition  to  his  share 
of  the  profits.  To  the  north  of  this  mill  was  the  Bleaching 
Meadow  where,  upon  stakes  driven  into  the  ground,  skeins 
of  cotton  were  stretched  and  cloth  was  spread  upon  the 
ground  for  bleaching.  "Mother  Cole,"  who  managed  the 
bleaching,  and  her  assistants  sprinkled  the  cotton  with 
watering-pots. 

The  cotton  used  by  Slater  was  from  Cayenne  (French 
Guiana),  Surinam  (Dutch  Guiana),  and  Hispaniola  (Hayti), 
and  brought  from  ninety  cents  to  $1.10  per  pound.  The 
cotton  was  cleaned  and  whipped  by  poor  families,  to  whom 
it  was  put  out  at  from  four  to  six  cents  per  pound,  accord- 
ing to  the  cleanliness  of  the  cotton. 


FIRST   COMMISSION  HOUSES 

The  production  of  the  mills  was  sold  through  agents 
in  Salem,  Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Baltimore, 
and  these  agents  grew  to  be  the  leading  commission  houses 
in  these  centres.  The  first  of  these  early  agents,  as  we  have 
learned,  was  Elijah  Waring,  of  Philadelphia;  and  another 
was  Jeremiah  Brown,  of  Philadelphia,  a  brother  of  Moses 
Brown.  Many  letters  exist  to  show  the  business  acumen 
of  Slater  in  transacting  his  business  with  these  agents.  A 
Boston  newspaper  in  May,  1809,  contained  the  following 
advertisement,  which  shows  that  as  early  as  1809  Slater 
had  begun  the  weaving  of  cotton: — 

"Factory  Cotton  and  Thread  Store,  26  Court  Street, 
opposite  Concert  Hall.  George  Connell,  agent  for  Almy 
and  Brown,  of  Providence  and  Pawtucket  Manufactories, 
has  now  for  sale  from  eight  to  ten  thousand  weight  of  yarn 
for  weaving,  etc.,  three  thousand  yards  of  cloth,  such  as 
checks,  stripes,  chambrays,  ginghams,  bed-ticks,  shirting, 
and  sheeting  cotton,  etc." 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  177 

Up  to  1789  the  construction  of  Arkwright's  machines 
and  the  operation  of  the  mills  using  them  had  been  con- 
fined to  Mr.  Slater  and  his  associates,  but  soon  after  1789 
several  of  Slater's  men  left  his  employ  and  erected  mills 
for  themselves  or  others. 


SHEPARD   STARTS  MILL  AT  WRENTHAM 

One  of  the  first  cotton  mills  that  was  started  through 
the  influence  of  Samuel  Slater  was  that  of  Benjamin  Shep- 
ard,  Wrentham,  Mass.  Shepard  was  a  farmer.  He  in- 
herited the  farm  on  which  he  lived  from  his  father,  and 
evidently  had  been  engaged  in  the  homespun  industry 
some  time  previous  to  1792,  when  he  erected  a  mill  and 
received  a  loan  of  three  hundred  pounds  on  June  20,  1793, 
from  the  legislature  to  carry  on  his  business. 

The  mill  was  built  on  a  brook  which  he  had  dammed 
on  his  farm,  and  here  he  manufactured  fustians,  cotton 
velvets,  and  similar  fabrics.  He  colored  his  yarns  in  a  dye- 
house,  and  wove  them  on  a  hand  loom  in  a  weave-shop  that 
adjoined  the  factory.  His  factory  was  about  fifty  feet 
in  length,  twenty  feet  in  width,  two  stories  high,  and  was 
divided  into  compartments  convenient  for  carrying  on  the 
business.  It  contained  a  carding  machine,  run  by  water, 
two  spinning  jennies,  one  roping  machine,  four  looms,  one 
warping  mill,  accommodations  for  singeing  cloth,  one  cal- 
ender, operated  by  a  horse,  and  had  also  facilities  for 
coloring  and  finishing  cotton  cloths,  and  many  other  small 
machines.  He  could  card  about  one  hundred  pounds  of 
cotton  per  week,  spin  from  seventy -two  to  one  hundred 
and  twenty  pounds,  weave  one  hundred  and  twenty  yards, 
and  color  and  finish  the  material. 

His  wife  conducted  an  industry  on  her  own  account  for 
some  years,  taking  yarn  and  waste  from  her  husband's 
mill  and  working  it  up  into  various  fabrics.  A  quaint 
document  is  a  contract  made  by  her  with  Stephen  Olney, 


178  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

of  Providence,  in  which  he  agreed  to  furnish  her  a  chaise 
for  the  value  of  a  chaise  in  goods  of  her  own  manufacture. 
The  business  was  carried  on  by  Shepard's  sons,  and  sub- 
sequently came  into  the  possession  of  others,  and  has  been 
in  operation  for  over  one  hundred  years.  It  has  probably 
been  longer  in  continuous  operation  than  any  other  mill 
in  the  country. 

Colonel  Job  Green,  John  Allen,  and  others  in  1794  estab- 
lished at  Centreville,  in  the  town  of  Warwick,  the  second 
cotton  mill  in  Rhode  Island.  It  was  not  successful  until 
1799,  when  one-half  of  the  property  was  bought  for  twenty- 
five  hundred  dollars  by  William  Almy  and  Obadiah  Brown. 
Full  control  was  secured  by  Almy  and  Brown  after  buying 
the  other  half  in  1801,  and  the  story  goes  that  Brown  and 
John  Allen  visited  Slater's  mill  at  Pawtucket  to  see  how 
things  were  run  there  and  to  get  some  useful  hints.  Slater, 
having  no  interest  in  the  Warwick  mill,  was  not  at  all 
pleased  by  Allen's  investigation,  and,  when  Allen  attempted 
to  measure  some  of  the  machines,  took  hold  of  him  and 
threatened  to  throw  him  out  of  the  window.  Obadiah,  who 
was  a  partner  of  Slater,  as  well  as  of  Allen,  took  the  meas- 
ure from  Allen,  saying,  "I  will  finish  thy  work,  and  I  will 
see  if  Samuel  will  serve  me  as  he  did  thee."  Slater  did  not 
care  to  attack  his  own  partner.  The  measurements  were 
taken,  and  the  Warwick  mill  was  thereby  equipped  with 
better  machines. 

The  second  cotton  mill  in  the  Rehoboth  part  of  Paw- 
tucket  was  built  in  1805  by  those  who  took  the  name  Paw- 
tucket  Cotton  and  Oil  Manufacturing  Company.  As  it 
was  of  wood  painted  yellow,  it  was  known  as  the  "Yellow 
Mill"  to  distinguish  it  from  the  "White  Mill"  of  Samuel 
Slater  &  Co.  just  above  it,  and  the  "Green  Mill"  of  Almy, 
Brown  &  Slater  across  the  river.  It  started  in  the  fall 
of  1805,  and  its  business  was  so  remunerative  that  its  owners 
built  a  mill  called  the  "Stone  Mill"  in  1823. 


MOSES  BROWN 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  179 

OTHER  MILLS   START 

Benjamin  S.  Walcott,  who  had  worked  on  the  construc- 
tion of  Slater's  first  mill,  with  Rufus  and  Elisha  Waterman 
erected  a  mill  at  Cumberland,  R.I.,  in  1802.  Another 
workman,  Charles  Robbins,  built  the  first  mill  for  cotton 
manufacturing  in  New  Hampshire  at  New  Ipswich,  on  the 
Souhegan  River,  and  it  started  on  Dec.  15,  1804,  four  and 
one-half  pounds  of  yarn  being  spun,  which  sold  for  $3.42. 
The  original  proprietors  of  this  first  mill  were  Charles 
Barrett  and  Robbins.  Daniel  Brooks,  who  had  been  em- 
ployed in  the  mill  at  New  Ipswich,  N.H.,  erected  in  1807 
the  second  cotton  mill  in  New  Hampshire,  a  short  distance 
below  the  first  mill.  It  subsequently  came  into  the  hands 
of  Seth  Mason,  Jesse  Holbin,  and  Samuel  Batchelder.  These 
two,  the  first  cotton  mills  in  New  Hampshire,  contained 
about  five  hundred  spindles  each. 

Another  employee  at  one  of  the  first  Pawtucket  mills, 
B.  S.  Walcott,  Jr.,  with  his  father  erected  the  first  cotton 
mill  in  Oneida  County,  New  York,  near  Utica,  in  1807  or 
1808.  Within  three  years  of  Slater's  completion  of  his 
first  mill  in  1791,  ten  mills  were  completed  or  being  com- 
pleted in  Rhode  Island,  and  one  in  Connecticut,  and  before 
1808  fifteen  mills  altogether  had  been  put  in  operation, 
using  in  all  about  eight  thousand  spindles.  By  1809 
eighty-seven  mills  had  been  erected,  using  thirty-one  thou- 
sand spindles. 

The  first  cotton  mill  near  Boston  to  use  Slater's  system, 
and  the  second  one  in  Massachusetts,  was  a  small  mill  in 
Beverly  on  the  Bass  River,  which  was  opened  in  1801  or 
early  in  1802.  It  had  six  water  frames  of  seventy-two 
spindles  each,  which  had  been  built  at  Paterson,  N.J.,  by 
a  mechanic  named  Clark,  who  went  to  Beverly  to  install 
the  machines.  A  lack  of  water  power  and  other  causes 
rendered  the  venture  unsuccessful. 


180  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

WHITTENTON   COTTON   MILLS 

The  Whittenton  Cotton  Mills  at  Taunton,  of  which 
Lawrence  &  Co.  are  the  agents,  was  also  started  at  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  mills  are  an 
offshoot  of  the  Colonial  Iron  Works  established  there  in 
1653  by  James  Leonard,  Sr.  Iron  had  been  discovered  on 
the  flats  about  Two  Mile  River  and  other  localities  near 
Taunton,  and  in  1652  James  and  Henry  Leonard,  of  Brain- 
tree,  entered  into  an  agreement  with  the  town  of  Taunton 
to  set  up  iron  works  there.  James  Leonard  went  to  Taunton 
and  established  the  iron  works  in  1653,  and  for  twelve  years 
was  the  foreman  in  charge  of  the  industry. 

He  subsequently  bought  ten  acres  of  land  with  a  water 
privilege  on  Two  Mile  River,  built  a  forge  which  he  called 
the  Whittington  Forge,  and  obtained  permission  to  build 
a  dam  and  flow  a  neighbor's  land.  At  his  death  he  left 
the  Whittington  Iron  Works  to  his  three  sons.  The  grist- 
mill part  of  the  interest,  which  had  been  erected  on  the  land 
of  the  iron  works,  was  sold  in  1810  to  Samuel  Crocker, 
Thomas  Bush,  and  Charles  Richmond,  who  had  been  clerks 
hi  the  iron  business  at  Whittington. 

They  built  a  nail  mill,  and  in  1807  added  a  story  to  the  nail 
mill  for  machines  to  spin  cotton  yarn  that  the  farmers' 
wives  wove  into  cloth  by  domestic  labor.  The  Whitting- 
ton Nail  and  Yarn  Mill  was  burned  down  in  1811,  and  a 
cotton  mill  was  erected  on  the  site  from  the  trees  which  two 
months  before  had  been  growing  on  the  timber  lot  of  the 
tract. 

Crocker  and  Richmond  after  the  death  of  Bush  in  1817 
imported  patterns  of  Slater's  power  loom  and  made  the 
first  good  cotton  cloth  about  Taunton.  This  cotton  inter- 
est was  incorporated  January,  1823,  in  the  Taunton  Manu- 
facturing Company,  of  which  Samuel  Crocker,  Charles 
Richmond,  and  others  were  the  incorporators.  The  incor- 
poration was  for  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  in  real 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  181 

property  and  four  hundred  thousand  dollars  in  personal 
property,  and  was  for  the  purpose  of  rolling  copper  and 
iron  and  manufacturing  cotton  and  wool.  Among  the  real 
estate  was  the  Whittenton  Cotton  Mill  and  the  Nail  Works. 
In  1835  James  K.  Mills  &  Co.,  who  had  been  associated 
with  the  original  incorporators,  withdrew,  taking  as  the 
company's  share  the  Whittenton  Mills,  the  "g"  having 
been  dropped  in  the  name  of  the  mill  and  the  "i"  changed 
to  an  "e."  The  mills  failed  in  1857,  and  the  business  in 
1858  was  bought  by  Willard  Lovering.  In  1880  it  was  in- 
corporated for  six  hundred  thousand  dollars,  with  William 
C.  Lovering,  president,  Charles  L.  Lovering,  treasurer, 
Henry  M.  Lovering,  agent  and  clerk,  since  which  time 
it  has  been  in  prosperous  operation. 


START   OF   THE  INDUSTRY   IN   CONNECTICUT 

An  early  effort  to  spin  cotton  was  made  in  1790  at  Nor- 
wich, Conn.,  by  Lathrop  and  Eells.  The  beginning  of 
the  textile  industry  in  Norwich  goes  back  to  1766,  when 
Christopher  Leffingwell  commenced  stocking  weaving  with 
William  Russell,  an  Englishman,  the  first  operator.  For 
a  time  it  was  a  small  concern,  working  but  two  or  three 
looms,  but  by  1791  nine  looms  were  producing  from  twelve 
hundred  to  fifteen  hundred  pairs  of  hose  made  from  worsted, 
cotton,  linen,  or  silk,  the  silk  hose  selling  from  twelve  to 
twenty  shillings  per  pair.  Gloves  and  purses  were  also 
made,  five  workmen  being  employed. 

The  business  was  later  carried  on  by  Jeremiah  Griffing, 
and  from  Norwich  the  stocking  industry  spread  in  1790 
to  Poughkeepsie,  N.Y.,  Hartford,  New  Haven,  Litchfield, 
and  Wallingford,  Conn.,  where  stocking  looms  similar  to 
those  that  were  used  in  Norwich  were  employed. 

This  industry  attracted  the  attention  of  Joshua  Lathrop, 
who  with  his  brother  conducted  a  retail  and  wholesale 
general  store  in  Norwich.  He  engaged  in  1790  a  man 


182  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

named  Herrick,  who  had  been  employed  in  the  cotton  fac- 
tory in  Beverly,  to  come  to  Norwich  and  start  cotton  manu- 
facturing. 

It  is  not  known  whether  the  machines  were  imported 
or  made  from  the  crude  models  that  were  used  at  Bev- 
erly. A  building  was  erected,  and  one  carding  machine, 
six  spinning  jennies,  and  six  looms  like  those  in  the  cotton 
factory  at  Beverly  were  installed.  Machines  were  added, 
and  fabrics  to  the  amount  of  about  two  thousand  yards 
per  year  were  being  turned  out. 

An  advertisement  which  appeared  March  19,  1783, 
stated:— 

"Lathrop  and  Eells  have  just  finished  a  variety  of  cotton 
goods  consisting  of  Royal  Ribs,  Ribdclures,  Ribdurants, 
Ribdenims,  Ribbets,  Zebrays,  Satinetts,  Satin-stripes,  Satin- 
cords,  Thicksetts,  Corduroys,  Stockinetts,  Dimotys,  Feath- 
ered Stripes,  Bird's-eye,  Denims,  Jeans,  Jeanetts,  Fustians, 
Bed  Tickings,  that  will  hold  feathers.  The  above  goods 
are  well  finished,  and  for  durability  undoubtedly  superior 
to  European  manufacture.  Gentleman  Merchants,  and 
others,  who  feel  disposed  to  encourage  home  manufactures, 
are  invited  to  call  and  see  for  themselves,  and  may  be  as- 
sured they  will  be  supplied  as  low  as  they  can  furnish  them- 
selves from  any  quarter." 

Although  ample  capital  was  back  of  the  business,  it 
could  not  be  made  profitable,  and  the  business  was  not 
long  continued. 


SPREAD   OF  INDUSTRY  THROUGH   INFLUENCE   OF  SLATER 

The  arrival  of  John  Slater,  a  younger  brother  of  Samuel, 
from  England  in  1803,  who  had  been  urged  by  his  older 
brother  to  come  to  this  country  and  engage  in  business 
with  him,  led  to  the  erection  at  Smithfield,  now  called 
Slaters ville,  in  1807  of  the  mills  which  John  Slater  man- 
aged. John,  who  had  been  apprenticed  to  the  trade  of  a 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  183 

millwright,  had  a  thorough  knowledge  of  mill  construction 
in  England,  and  furthermore  was  advised  by  his  brother 
Samuel  to  visit,  before  sailing  for  this  country,  Manchester 
and  Oldham  to  secure  knowledge  of  the  latest  improvements 
in  English  machinery.  This  John  did,  so  that,  when  he 
arrived  here,  he  had  a  knowledge  of  Samuel  Crompton's 
mule,  which  had  been  invented  in  1779,  but  of  which 
Samuel  Slater  knew  nothing,  so  slow  were  the  English  mills 
to  adopt  the  mule  at  the  time  that  Samuel  Slater  left 
England. 

John  Slater  entered  the  employment  of  Almy,  Brown  & 
Slater  at  Pawtucket,  and,  when  it  was  decided  in  1805  to 
begin  cotton  manufacturing  in  a  new  place,  John  Slater 
set  out  on  a  horseback  journey  to  locate  a  site.  He  rode 
through  the  wilderness  in  the  northern  part  of  the  town 
of  Smithfield,  and  coming  to  a  stream  called  by  the  Indians 
the  Monhegan  River,  which  was  the  southern  branch  of 
the  Blackstone  River,  saw  at  once  that  water  power  pos- 
sessed great  possibilities.  At  one  place  it  fell  about  forty 
feet  from  a  series  of  natural  reservoirs,  which  gave  promise 
of  water  even  in  a  dry  season. 

Sufficient  land  was  bought  to  control  the  water  power, 
and  a  partnership  was  formed  by  William  Almy,  Obadiah 
Brown,  Samuel  Slater,  and  John  Slater,  under  the  name  of 
Almy,  Brown  &  Slaters.  The  mill  was  completed  in  1806, 
and  spinning  was  begun  early  in  1807.  The  locality  in 
which  the  mill  was  built  is  now  called  Slatersville. 


GILMORE  S   LOOM 

It  was  to  John  Slater  that  William  Gilmore  presented 
his  plans  for  building  a  loom.  Gilmore  had  arrived  in 
Boston  in  1815,  and,  knowing  how  to  build  power  looms  and 
dressing  machines,  was  advised  to  apply  to  the  Slaters. 
He  went  to  them,  and  offered  to  build  machinery  for  power 
loom  weaving,  with  the  understanding  that  he  was  to  re- 


184  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

ceive  nothing,  should  he  be  unable  to  put  the  looms  into 
successful  operation. 

The  conservatism  of  Samuel  Slater  could  not  be  over- 
come, and  the  proposal  was  therefore  turned  down,  al- 
though John  Slater  was  in  favor  of  the  proposition.  Had 
Samuel  Slater  accepted  the  proposal,  he  would  have  been 
the  first  not  only  to  have  introduced  into  Rhode  Island 
cotton  spinning,  but  also  power  loom  weaving. 

Gilmore,  after  being  employed  for  a  while  in  the  ma- 
chine shop  of  the  factory  at  Slatersville,  went  to  the  Lyman 
Cotton  Manufacturing  Company,  which  had  been  started 
early  in  1810  by  Judge  Daniel  Lyman  at  North  Providence, 
R.I.,  and  made  the  same  proposal  to  Judge  Lyman  that  he 
had  made  to  the  Slaters.  Gilmore's  offer  was  accepted, 
so  that  the  Scotch  loom,  which  was  invented  by  William 
Horrocks,  of  Stockport,  England,  during  the  years  from 
1805  to  1813,  was  first  introduced  into  Rhode  Island  by 
Judge  Daniel  Lyman  and  Gilmore. 

This  loom  differed  from  the  Waltham  loom  of  Francis 
C.  Lowell,  who  introduced  the  latter  into  the  mills  of  the 
Boston  Manufacturing  Company  at  Waltham,  Mass.,  in 
this  respect:  in  Gilmore's  loom  the  lift  and  fall  of  the 
harness  were  accomplished  by  a  crank,  while  in  the  Wal- 
tham loom  the  work  was  done  by  a  cam.  Then,  too,  it 
cost  but  seventy  dollars  to  build  a  Gilmore  loom,  while  the 
Waltham  loom  cost  almost  three  hundred  dollars.  Judge 
Lyman  did  not  restrict  the  use  of  the  loom  in  any  way  by 
patenting  it,  but  permitted  Mr.  Gilmore  to  sell  to  David 
Wilkinson  for  ten  dollars  the  use  of  all  his  drawings,  so  that 
it  was  not  long  before  the  Scotch  loom,  as  the  Gilmore 
loom  was  known,  was  being  used  quite  generally  by  the 
mills  in  the  lower  part  of  New  England,  looms  being  built 
by  David  Wilkinson  and  others. 

The  first  mill  to  use  steam  was  erected  by  Mr.  Slater 
and  his  assistants  in  1827  at  Providence,  and  it  was  run 
with  anthracite  coal  from  the  Schuylkill,  producing  yarn 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  185 

No.  80,  the  cloth  of  which  was  said  to  be  the  finest  in  the 
country. 

Slater's  successful  use  of  Arkwright's  machines  not  only 
brought  him  and  his  associates  great  prosperity,  but  placed 
cotton  manufacturing  in  the  United  States  on  a  secure 
footing.  By  this  time  Slater  had  become  interested  in 
wool  as  well  as  cotton,  and  was  the  leading  textile  manufact- 
urer of  his  era.  The  War  of  1812  greatly  increased  his 
prosperity,  as  cotton  cloth  sold  at  forty  cents  a  yard  and 
the  demand  was  unlimited. 

Societies  sprang  up  in  most  of  the  States  to  encourage 
manufacture,  and  Congress  passed  acts  protecting  the 
infant  industry  against  foreign  competition.  By  1805  the 
total  consumption  of  cotton  in  the  United  States  was  little 
more  than  1,000  bales:  in  1816  90,000  bales  of  cotton 
were  used.  In  1805  the  mills  of  the  United  States  could 
not  furnish  the  army  with  6,000  blankets:  in  1816  there 
were  $40,000,000  invested  in  cotton  manufacture  and 
$12,000,000  in  woolen.  In  the  same  year  the  whole  amount 
of  goods  made  in  the  United  States  was  $50,000,000  or 
$60,000,000:  by  1836  $250,000,000  was  made,  of  which 
$25,000,000  was  exported. 

Mills  continued  to  increase  rapidly,  so  that  by  the  open- 
ing of  the  war  with  Great  Britain  in  1812  there  were  in 
Rhode  Island  thirty- three  factories  using  30,663  spindles 
and  twenty  factories  in  Massachusetts  using  17,371  spindles, 
or  fifty-three  factories  with  48,034  spindles  in  all.  Each 
spindle  produced  enough  yarn  weekly  to  make  2j^  yards  of 
cloth  of  a  value  then  of  about  thirty  cents  a  yard,  or  in 
all  128,635  yards  of  cloth,  worth  $96,476. 

The  effect  of  Slater's  influence  on  the  woolen  industry 
was  soon  seen  in  Rhode  Island,  where  a  number  of  at- 
tempts were  made  prior  to  1800  to  card  and  spin  wool  by 
power.  At  the  time  of  Slater's  death  in  1835  the  American 
textile  industry  was  firmly  established. 


186  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

BEGINNING    OF    POWER    WOOLEN    MILLS    IN    RHODE    ISLAND 

The  history  of  the  starting  of  the  woolen  industry  in 
Rhode  Island  on  a  scale  worthy  of  being  called  manu- 
facturing compasses  the  story  of  the  business  ability  and 
foresight  of  Rowland  Hazard.  An  attempt  to  card  wool 
by  water  power  had  been  made  in  1800  by  one  Irvin,  an 
Englishman,  but  it  was  a  failure,  and  it  was  not  until  Mr. 
Hazard  appeared  that  it  was  carried  to  success. 

Mr.  Hazard  had  been  a  commission  merchant  and  im- 
porter in  Charleston,  and  had  married  Mary  Peace,  the 
daughter  of  Isaac  Peace,  a  wealthy  merchant  there.  He 
bought  in  1802  from  John  Warner  Knowles  one-half  of  a 
ten-acre  property,  including  a  mill  privilege,  dam,  and  a 
fulling  mill  which  Benjamin  Rodman  had  built  a  number 
of  years  before.  Benjamin  Rodman,  who  had  inherited 
a  mill  privilege  and  saw-mill  on  Rocky  Brook,  a  tributary 
of  the  Saugatuck  River,  from  his  father  about  1790,  built 
a  fulling  mill  on  the  land,  and  it  was  conveyed  with  the 
ten  acres  in  1802  to  his  grandson,  the  aforesaid  John  Warner. 
Here  Messrs.  Knowles  and  Hazard  commenced  fulling  and 
dressing  cloth,  and  in  1803  wool  carding  was  added  to  the 
industry.  Later  Joseph  Congdon  became  one  of  the 
partners. 

About  1808  Mr.  Hazard,  who  had  closed  out  his  business 
in  the  South,  commenced  the  weaving  of  cloth,  employing 
the  hand  looms  in  the  homes  of  his  neighborhood.  At 
first  the  fabric  was  a  sort  of  linsey-woolsey,  but  had  a  warp 
of  cotton.  It  was  largely  used  for  women's  garments  or  for 
men's  summer  wear.  The  business  grew,  and  Mr.  Hazard 
in  1814  contracted  with  Thomas  R.  Williams  to  set  up  four 
looms  of  his  own  make.  It  is  said  that  those  were  prob- 
ably the  first  power  looms  successfully  operated  in  America. 
It  is  also  said  that  Mr.  Hazard  was  the  first  one  in  this 
country  to  employ  water  power  to  operate  the  spinning 
jenny.  Mr.  Hazard  finally  retired,  and  the  business  was 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  187 

carried  on  with  great  success  by  his  enterprising  sons  and 
their  children  under  the  name  of  the  Peace  Dale  Manu- 
facturing Company,  so  called  from  that  part  of  South 
Kingston  which  had  been  known  for  three-quarters  of  a 
century  as  Peace  Dale,  and  was  probably  named  from 
Mary  Peace,  the  first  Mrs.  Hazard. 

The  stimulating  effect  of  the  growth  of  the  cotton  indus- 
try was  further  seen  in  the  establishment  in  1814  of  the 
Lynn  Linen  Spinning  Factory  Company,  which  purposed 
to  do  for  linen  what  had  already  been  done  for  cotton. 
A  factory  of  wood,  three  stories  high,  was  erected  on  the 
east  side  of  the  Saugus  River,  and  the  manufacture  of  sail 
duck  was  completed.  This  factory  was  quite  prosperous 
until  the  end  of  the  War  of  1812,  when  the  large  importa- 
tion of  linen  forced  it  out  of  business. 

Another  attempt  was  made  in  1816  by  Nathaniel  Perry, 
who  built  a  dam  over  the  brook  in  North  Saugus,  and 
erected  a  large  wooden  building  to  spin  and  weave  a  finer 
kind  of  linen;  but  this,  too,  was  a  failure. 


SOUTHERN   DEVELOPMENT 

The  spinning  and  weaving  of  cotton  began  in  a  desultory 
way  in  the  South  soon  after  it  was  found  that  cotton  was 
a  profitable  crop  and  the  growing  commenced  on  a  com- 
mercial scale,  but  home  spinning  and  weaving  of  cotton 
for  domestic  use  was  early  universal  in  the  South.  Thomas 
Jefferson  speaks  of  employing  in  his  household  two  spinning 
jennies,  a  carding  machine,  and  a  loom  with  a  flying  shuttle, 
by  which  he  made  the  more  than  two  thousand  yards  of 
cloth  which  his  family  and  servants  required  yearly.  In  a 
letter  written  by  him  in  1786  we  have  learned  that  he  wrote: 
"The four  southernmost  states  make  a  great  deal  of  cotton. 
Their  poor  are  almost  entirely  clothed  in  it  in  winter  and 
summer.  It  is  as  well  manufactured  as  the  calicoes  of 
Europe." 


188  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

The  first  cotton  mill  in  South  Carolina,  as  far  as  can  be 
ascertained,  was  started  by  horse-power  in  1787  on  James 
Island,  near  Charleston.  It  is  said  to  have  contained 
eighty-four  spindles  and  to  have  been  first  driven  by  horse- 
power. One  of  the  earliest  developments  of  manufacturing 
in  the  South  was  in  Baltimore,  Md.,  and  was  the  outgrowth 
of  a  meeting  of  tradesmen,  manufacturers,  and  others  that 
was  held  Feb.  24,  1789,  at  which  a  petition  to  the  United 
States  Congress  was  presented.  This  petition  recited  that 
America  was  now  freed  from  the  commercial  shackles 
which  had  long  bound  her  and  could  become  independent 
in  fact  as  well  as  in  name.  The  petitioners  therefore  hoped 
that  the  encouragement  of  American  manufactures  would 
receive  the  early  attention  of  the  Supreme  Legislature  of 
the  land,  as  the  United  States  had  resources  amply  suffi- 
cient to  enable  them  to  become  a  great  manufacturing 
country.  The  petitioners  hoped,  in  conclusion,  that  the 
Supreme  Legislature  would  place  such  duties  on  all  foreign 
articles  that  can  be  made  in  America  as  will  give  a  just  and 
decided  preference  to  domestic  goods. 

On  May  2,  1789,  a  meeting  of  citizens  was  held  at  Stark's 
Tavern,  Baltimore,  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  a  cotton 
manufactory.  A  committee  was  appointed,  which  led  to 
the  organization  of  the  Baltimore  Manufacturing  Company 
with  a  capital  of  ten  thousand  pounds,  divided  into  a  hun- 
dred shares  of  a  hundred  pounds  each.  A  meeting  was  held 
on  June  3,  at  which  directors  were  elected  and  advertise- 
ments prepared  for  looms,  spinning  wheels,  check  wheels, 
etc.,  and  for  skilled  manufacturers  of  cotton,  flax,  and  wool. 
Joseph  Low  seems  to  have  been  made  manager,  for  he  sub- 
sequently advertised  for  weavers,  and  directed  applicants, 
who  would  receive  liberal  wages,  to  apply  at  the  factory, 
where  a  few  women  could  be  set  to  work  winding  yarn. 

The  last  reference  to  this  manufacturing  company  is 
on  April  1,  1791,  when  an  advertisement  of  the  directors' 
meeting  appeared  in  the  Maryland  Journal.  It  is  thought 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  189 

that  the  industry  was  not  carried  on  with  any  great  success, 
for  no  subsequent  records  of  it  have  been  found. 

A  later  attempt  was  made  at  Elkton,  Md.,  when  the  Cecil 
Manufacturing  Company,  the  first  mill  for  the  manufactur- 
ing of  woolen  fabrics  in  Maryland,  began  business  in  1795. 
The  first  industry  in  Baltimore  had  been  confined  to  cotton 
goods,  although  the  original  resolutions  spoke  as  if  woolen 
as  well  as  cotton  goods  were  contemplated.  The  chief 
promoter  of  the  Cecil  Manufacturing  Company  was  Colonel 
Henry  Rollings  worth,  of  Elkton,  Md.,  who  purchased  on 
July  31,  1794,  ten  acres  of  land  on  both  sides  of  the 
Little  Elk  River,  and  organized  the  company  about  Nov. 
1,  1794. 

A  factory  of  stone,  sixty  feet  long,  thirty-six  feet  wide, 
and  three  stories  high,  was  constructed,  and  machinery 
installed  that  was  imported  from  Europe.  The  mill  was 
burned  in  1796,  and  a  new  mill  was  immediately  built. 
Five  hundred  and  ninety-five  acres  of  land  adjoining  the 
site  of  the  property  were  subsequently  purchased  for  pas- 
turing sheep  to  supply  the  mill  with  wool,  and  in  1805  John 
Wilson,  of  Yorkshire,  England,  was  engaged  as  manager. 
So  excellent  were  the  goods  that  cloth  was  made  into  a 
suit  of  clothes  that  was  worn  by  President  Jefferson  at  his 
inauguration.  The  enterprise  was  undoubtedly  a  success, 
and  was  carried  on  for  a  number  of  years.  At  the  close  of 
the  War  of  1812  the  immense  influx  of  foreign  goods  stopped 
its  wheels,  and  for  a  long  while  the  property  remained  idle. 
It  was  finally  used  as  a  paper  mill,  but  was  burned  to  the 
ground  Jan.  9,  1853. 

One  of  the  most  unique  organizations  for  the  encourag- 
ing of  American  industries  was  that  organized  by  a  num- 
ber of  gentlemen  on  the  17th  of  January,  1789,  at  Wilming- 
ton, Del.  The  organization  was  called  the  Delaware 
System  for  the  Encouragement  and  Promotion  of  the 
Manufactories  of  the  United  States.  The  members  agreed 
to  appear  annually  on  the  first  of  the  year  in  a  full  and 


190  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

complete  suit  of  American  manufacture,  to  encourage  the 
raising  of  sheep  and  the  growth  of  hemp  and  flax,  to  dis- 
courage the  importation  of  foreign  articles,  and  always  to 
give  preference  to  American  manufactures  where  there 
was  a  reasonable  proportion  between  the  price  and  the 
quality.  Other  organizations,  as  we  have  seen,  were  es- 
tablished in  other  centres,  but  none  was  quite  so  specific 
in  its  articles  of  incorporation  as  this. 

A  cotton  mill  was  started  in  Wilmington,  Del.,  by  Jacob 
Broome  in  1795,  and  six  small  horse-power  mills  for  the 
spinning  of  cotton  were  started  in  1809  in  Kentucky.  A 
water-power  mill  was  put  in  operation  the  same  year  in 
Petersburgh,  Va.,  also  at  Nashville,  Tenn.,  but  the  real 
development  of  cotton  spinning  in  the  South  has  been  largely 
since  the  Civil  War. 

The  cotton  for  the  spinning  process  was  prepared  by  the 
farm  laborers,  who  picked  the  seed  from  the  lint  by  hand, 
and  it  was  not  until  the  invention  of  Whitney's  saw-gin  in 
1793  that  cotton  growing  was  materially  increased.  We 
have  already  learned  how  it  started  in  the  South  in  the 
story  of  cotton.  The  rapid  development  of  the  cotton 
growth  after  the  invention  of  the  gin  is  seen  from  the  fact 
that  in  1790  two  million  pounds  were  grown  in  the  South; 
in  1796,  ten  million;  in  1810,  eighty  million;  and  in  1820, 
one  hundred  and  sixty  million.  By  1840  cotton  pro- 
duction had  so  largely  exceeded  the  consumption  that  the 
prices  became  very  low,  and  in  1844  reached  an  average 
of  5.63  cents.  At  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War  the  South 
by  means  of  cotton,  which  had  become  the  staple  product, 
had  reached  a  degree  of  prosperity  when  its  property  valu- 
ation was  $5,200,000,000,  or  43>£  per  cent,  of  the  total  prop- 
erty valuation  of  the  country,  which  was  $12,000,000,000. 
The  Civil  War  and  the  subsequent  blockade  of  the  Southern 
ports  cut  down  the  supply  of  raw  cotton  enormously  and 
ruined  the  South.  The  planters  were  bankrupt,  and  many 
ended  their  year  in  debt  to  their  factors,  only  the  most 


Jranris  Ct.totaeU. 


(Courtesy  of  C.  J.  H.  Woodbury) 

The  only  likeness  extant  of  Francis  C.  Lowell.  This  silhouette  was  found 
back  of  a  picture  in  the  office  of  the  Boston  Manufacturing  Company,  at 
Waltham,  Massachusetts,  by  the  late  A.  M.  Goodale,  who  was  long  the 
agent  of  the  company. 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  191 

skilful  fanners  being  able  to  work  their  way  to  a  better 
financial  condition. 

Little  by  little  cotton  spinning  began  to  establish  itself 
in  the  South,  and  by  1880  had  reached  a  point  where  the 
Southern  mills  were  using  12  per  cent,  of  the  total  amount 
consumed  in  the  country,  and  in  1910  the  amount  con- 
sumed was  45  per  cent.  To-day  the  South  practically  con- 
trols the  trade  with  China  in  cheap  goods  from  this  country. 

Much  of  the  Southern  industry  owes  its  development  to 
New  England  capital,  for  many  of  the  foresighted  New 
England  merchants,  seeing  the  possibility  of  Southern 
mill  development,  invested  their  money  in  the  promotion 
and  erection  of  Southern  mills. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

ERA    OF    LOWELL,    APPLETON,    MOODY,    JACKSON,     AND 

BOOTT 

FIRST  COMPLETE  COTTON  MILL  IN  THE  WORLD — LOWELL  VISITS 
ENGLISH  MILLS ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  BOSTON  MANUFACTUR- 
ING COMPANY CARE  OF  EMPLOYEES SALE  OF  GOODS WALTHAM 

versus  RHODE  ISLAND  SYSTEM  OF  MANUFACTURING — THE  FOUN- 
DATION OF  THE  CITY  OF  LOWELL  AND  THE  STARTING  OF  THE 
MERRIMAC  MANUFACTURING  COMPANY — NAMING  OF  LOWELL — 
STARTING  OF  FIRST  MILLS 

The  first  mill  in  the  world  where  the  whole  process  of 
cotton  manufacturing,  from  spinning  to  weaving,  was 
carried  on  by  power,  was  that  of  the  Boston  Manufacturing 
Company,  which  was  incorporated  Feb.  23,  1813,  with  a 
capital  of  four  hundred  thousand  dollars  and  was  erected 
later  the  same  year  at  Waltham,  from  whence  it  took  its 
better-known  name  of  "The  Waltham  Company."  The 
enterprise  was  the  conception  of  Francis  Cabot  Lowell  and 
Patrick  Tracy  Jackson,  and  it  grew  from  investigations  of 
textile  manufacturing  which  Lowell  had  made  in  England. 

Previous  to  the  starting  of  the  Waltham  mill  the  processes 
of  spinning  and  weaving  were  carried  on  in  separate  es- 
tablishments in  both  England  and  America,  those  who 
wove  buying  their  twist  of  those  who  spun.  It  was  the 
original  purpose  of  Lowell  and  his  associates  to  construct 
a  weaving  mill  to  do  solely  by  power  what  had  previ- 
ously been  done  by  hand,  but  it  was  learned  that  it  would 
be  cheaper  to  spin  the  twist  rather  than  buy  it,  and  ac- 
cordingly the  mill  was  built  with  about  seventeen  hundred 
spindles. 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  193 


LOWELL   VISITS   ENGLISH   MILLS 

Francis  Cabot  Lowell,  a  Boston  merchant,  who  was  born 
in  Newburyport  on  April  7,  1775,  and  was  graduated  at 
Harvard  in  1793,  while  visiting  England  and  Scotland  with 
his  family  in  1811,  met  at  Edinburgh  Nathan  Appleton, 
and  told  him  that  he  thought  the  cotton  manufacturing 
then  monopolized  by  England  might  well  be  carried  on  in 
America.  He  further  informed  Appleton  that  he  had  deter- 
mined, before  returning  to  America,  to  visit  Manchester 
and  obtain  all  the  information  to  be  had  on  the  cotton 
machinery.  Appleton  urged  him  to  do  so,  and  promised 
his  co-operation. 

When  Lowell  returned  to  America  in  1813,  he  had  suc- 
ceeded not  only  in  seeing  the  closely  guarded  machines, 
but  in  getting  a  sufficiently  clear  idea  of  their  construction 
to  carry  back  to  America  the  ability  to  make  them. 
He  talked  over  American  conditions  with  Patrick  Tracy 
Jackson,  his  brother-in-law,  another  prosperous  Boston 
merchant,  and  the  latter  consented  to  engage  in  the  enter- 
prise with  him. 

Not  only  was  machinery  taking  the  place  of  manual 
labor  in  spinning,  but  Lowell  knew  that  power  looms  had 
been  introduced,  although  he  had  been  unable  to  secure 
any  accurate  knowledge  of  these  particular  machines,  owing 
to  the  secrecy  which  surrounded  them.  Skill  and  reputa- 
tion, cheapness  of  labor  and  abundance  of  capital,  were 
the  advantages  of  the  English  manufacturer;  but  in  favor 
of  New  England  was  the  great  abundance  of  superior  water 
power  and  the  opportunity  to  get  raw  material  cheaper 
because  of  the  nearness  to  the  source  of  the  cotton  supply. 
It  was  also  believed  that  the  educational  and  moral  su- 
periority of  the  New  England  population  and  its  enterprise 
would  aid  in  the  overcoming  of  English  competition. 


194  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

ORGANIZATION    OF    THE    BOSTON    MANUFACTURING    COMPANY 

With  these  thoughts  in  mind  Mr.  Lowell  and  Mr.  Jackson 
bought  the  water  power  rights  at  Waltham,  of  John  Boies' 
Paper  Mill,  and  incorporated  in  1813  the  Boston  Manu- 
facturing Company,  otherwise  known  as  the  Waltham 
Company,  of  which  Mr.  Jackson  agreed  to  assume  the 
management.  Under  the  company's  charter  the  author- 
ized capital  was  four  hundred  thousand  dollars,  but  only 
a  hundred  thousand  dollars  were  to  be  raised  until  the  ex- 
periment had  been  made.  Most  of  the  stock  was  taken  by 
Mr.  Lowell  and  Mr.  Jackson  and  their  friends.  Mr.  Apple- 
ton  took  five  thousand  dollars'  worth. 

As  the  war  with  England  precluded  communication 
with  that  country  and  no  designs  or  models  of  looms  could 
be  procured,  Mr.  Lowell  set  about  inventing  a  power  loom, 
aided  by  Paul  Moody,  an  expert  mechanic  of  Amesbury. 
For  months  Lowell  carried  on  experiments  in  a  store  on 
Broad  Street,  Boston,  employing  a  man  to  turn  a  crank. 
A  practical  loom  was  completed  and  installed  in  the  fall 
of  1814  in  the  new  mill  which  had  recently  been  com- 
pleted at  Waltham.  The  first  mill  was  of  brick,  five  stories 
high,  ninety  feet  long,  forty-five  feet  wide,  had  a  roof  of 
double  pitch,  known  as  the  "factory"  roof,  which  was  trussed 
and  braced  to  be  very  strong.  It  contained  three  thousand 
spindles,  and  turned  out  goods  at  the  rate  of  four  thousand 
yards  per  week. 

According  to  Hurd's  History  of  Middlesex  County, 
the  first  record  of  the  work  of  the  Waltham  mill  is  on  the 
books  of  the  company  under  date  of  Feb.  2,  1816,  at  which 
time  the  entry  was  made  of  "  1242  yards,  4-4,  or  thirty-six 
inch  wide  cotton."  So  that  this  entry  probably  records 
the  earliest  date  when  the  first  cotton  cloth  was  made  in 
the  world  by  power  and  the  whole  manufacturing  process 
was  under  one  roof. 

The  loom  invented  by  Mr.  Lowell  was  different  from  the 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  195 

English  loom  that  afterward  became  public  in  that  the 
principal  movement  was  by  a  cone  revolving  with  an  ec- 
centric motion,  that  has  given  place  to  the  crank  motion. 
The  power  loom  necessitated  changes  in  the  spinning  proc- 
ess, particularly  in  sizing  the  warp.  Drawings  of  Hor- 
rocks's  dressing  machine  were  secured  from  England,  and 
a  machine  with  improvements  was  made  and  installed  at 
Waltham.  To  meet  the  need  for  winding  the  threads 
from  the  bobbins  on  to  the  beam,  Mr.  Moody  invented 
the  ingenious  warper.  Imperative  necessity  for  a  bobbin 
and  fly,  or  jack,  frame,  arose  for  spinning  roving,  and  Mr. 
Moody  and  Mr.  Lowell  invented  the  double  speeder,  which 
required  the  most  careful  mathematical  calculations,  and 
these  Mr.  Lowell  could  supply.  William  Bowditch,  the 
mathematician,  who  was  called  into  the  patent  litigation 
on  the  speeder,  expressed  great  surprise  that  there  was 
any  one  in  the  country  except  himself  able  to  do  the  com- 
plex mathematical  problems  that  the  speeder  entailed. 
Later,  to  overcome  the  great  waste  and  expense  in  winding 
the  thread  for  filling,  or  weft,  from  the  bobbin  on  to  the  quills 
for  the  shuttle,  Mr.  Moody  worked  out  the  filling  throstle. 

The  wooden  rollers  used  in  the  first  construction  of  the 
dressing  frame  had  so  swollen  and  warped,  owing  to  the 
wool  being  constantly  wet,  that  the  rolls  would  not  fit 
accurately,  and  the  rollers  were  covered  with  metal  by 
casting  a  coating  of  pewter  on  the  outside,  but  these  were 
also  found  impractical,  owing  to  the  difficulty  of  casting 
them.  Moody  at  last  thought  of  making  a  mould  of  soap- 
stone  in  which  to  cast  them,  and  his  brother,  to  whom  he 
told  his  trouble,  said  that  he  thought  soapstone  would 
make  a  very  good  roller,  and  Moody  tried  it  and  found  it 
worked  perfectly.  All  of  which  shows  how  much  American 
textile  manufacturers  owe  to  Lowell  and  Moody,  for  most 
of  their  machines  with  improvements  are  in  use  to-day. 

In  Mr.  Lowell's  search  for  the  best  machines,  accompanied 
by  Mr.  Moody,  he  visited  a  machinist  named  Shepard,  of 


196  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

Taunton,  who  had  a  patent  for  winding  machines  which 
were  thought  to  be  the  best  on  the  market,  but  Shepard 
refused  to  reduce  his  price,  even  though  Mr.  Lowell  used 
them  on  a  large  scale. 

"You  must  have  them,  you  cannot  do  without  them,  as 
you  know,  Mr.  Moody." 

"I  was  just  thinking  that  I  can  spin  the  caps  direct  upon 
the  bobbins,"  said  Mr.  Moody. 

"You  be  hanged!"  said  Mr.  Shepard.  "Well,  I  will 
accept  your  offer." 

"No,  it's  too  late,"  interposed  Mr.  Lowell,  and  he  with- 
drew the  offer,  deciding  to  spin  the  caps  upon  the  bobbins. 

The  Waltham  enterprise  was  a  success  from  the  start, 
and  the  needs  soon  required  raising  the  full  capital,  four 
hundred  thousand  dollars,  and  the  addition  of  two  hundred 
thousand  dollars  for  buying  a  place  below  Watertown. 


CARE    OF    EMPLOYEES 

Under  Mr.  Jackson's  management  much  attention  was 
given  to  the  physical  and  moral  care  of  the  employees. 
Payment  of  regular  wages  at  stated  intervals  was  begun 
at  the  outset,  and  boarding-houses,  at  the  head  of  which 
matrons  of  good  character  were  placed,  were  built  at  the 
expense  of  the  company.  No  boarders  were  taken  except 
operatives,  and  the  careful  regulation  of  these  boarding- 
houses  so  gained  the  confidence  of  the  surrounding  popula- 
tion that  parents  were  not  afraid  to  trust  their  daughters 
to  work  in  the  factory.  Pains  were  also  taken  to  have  as 
agents  and  overseers  men  of  character,  so  that  the  class  of 
help  was  of  the  best,  and  that  aided  much  in  the  production 
of  good  fabrics. 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  197 


SALE    OF    GOODS 

At  first  the  goods  did  not  sell  very  rapidly,  but,  as  there 
was  but  one  loom,  they  did  not  accumulate  fast.  At  the 
outset  they  were  sold  at  a  shop  on  Cornhill,  Boston,  kept 
by  the  wife  of  Isaac  Bowers,  who  had  the  only  place  in 
Boston  where  domestic  goods  were  sold.  Mr.  Lowell  and 
Mr.  Appleton  had  a  talk  with  Mrs.  Bowers,  who  said  that, 
although  every  one  praised  the  goods  and  none  objected 
to  the  price,  yet  they  did  not  sell.  Mr.  Appleton,  who 
after  the  peace  of  1815  had  entered  into  partnership  with 
Benjamin  C.  Ward  to  import  British  goods,  suggested  that 
Mr.  Lowell  send  the  next  batch  of  goods  to  the  store  of  B.  C. 
Ward  &  Co.,  and  he  would  see  what  could  be  done.  The 
goods  then  made  at  Waltham  were  heavy  sheetings  of 
No.  14  yarn,  37  inches  wide,  44  picks  to  the  inch,  and  ran 
about  three  yards  to  the  pound,  the  purpose  being  to  imi- 
tate the  unbleached  yard-wide  goods  of  India,  which  then 
crowded  the  market.  Ward  &  Co.  found  a  purchaser 
in  Mr.  Forsaith,  an  auctioneer,  who  sold  the  product  at  a 
little  over  thirty  cents  per  yard,  although  Mr.  Lowell  had 
said  he  would  be  satisfied  with  twenty-five  cents.  The 
goods  continued  to  sell  at  little  variation  in  price. 

These  circumstances  led  to  Ward  &  Co.  becoming  the 
permanent  selling  agents  of  the  company,  and  this  was  the 
beginning  of  the  very  successful  system  of  merchandising 
so  generally  employed  to-day. 

While  the  War  of  1812  had  a  marked  effect  on  stimu- 
lating the  production  of  American  textiles,  its  conclusion, 
owing  to  the  influx  of  foreign  goods  which  were  sold  almost 
at  cost,  was  ruinous  to  the  industry,  especially  as  the  power 
loom  was  not  in  use  save  in  Waltham.  Protection  was 
sought  from  Congress,  which  in  1816,  under  the  influence 
of  Mr.  Lowell  who  went  to  Washington,  passed  a  duty  of 
6 1  cents  per  square  yard. 

While  the  tariff  was  under  discussion,  Mr.  Lowell  visited 


198  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

Pawtucket,  and  found  all  the  spindles  idle  and  the  manu- 
facturers despondent.  They  told  him  they  had  been  so 
busy  turning  out  goods  at  a  high  profit  during  the  war 
that  they  had  given  no  thought  to  improving  the  machin- 
ery, considering  only  how  quickly  the  goods  could  be  made. 
Mr.  Lowell  informed  them  that  the  power  loom  would  put 
a  new  face  on  the  situation,  but  the  mill  owners  were  at 
first  incredulous,  though  they  soon  came  to  his  opinion  and 
began  installing  the  looms.  Mr.  Lowell  was  also  the  first 
person  systematically  to  arrange  the  processes  of  manu- 
facturing in  a  mill  so  that  no  labor  would  be  lost  in  passing 
from  one  process  to  another,  and  few  changes  have  been 
made  in  these  arrangements  since  he  first  established 
them. 

To  his  fertile  brain  the  industry  owes  the  mill  organiza- 
tion of  the  present  day,  with  a  president  as  chairman  of  the 
board  of  directors  and  the  treasurer  as  the  executive  head, 
with  the  responsibility  of  buying  the  raw  material  and 
through  the  selling  house  disposing  of  the  finished  product, 
which  he  initiated  in  the  Waltham  mills.  The  subdivisions 
of  the  departments  of  the  mill  under  overseers,  supervised 
by  a  superintendent  who  had  charge  of  the  help  and  their 
operations,  while  a  master  machinist  had  charge  of  the 
buildings  and  the  machinery,  both  reporting  to  the  agent 
for  the  proprietors,  whose  functions  were  those  of  general 
manager,  is  the  type  of  organization  which  Lowell  insti- 
tuted, and  which  has  continued  to-day  as  the  best  method 
of  operating  a  textile  mill  and  selling  its  products. 


WALTHAM  VerSUS  RHODE  ISLAND  SYSTEM  OF  MANUFACTURING 

As  mule  spinning  had  already  been  introduced  in  Rhode 
Island,  the  power  loom  and  other  machinery  of  William 
Gilmore,  who,  we  have  learned,  perfected  the  loom  which 
the  Lyman  Cotton  Manufactory  had  adopted  at  Providence, 
completed  the  Rhode  Island  manufacturing  system,  so 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  199 

that  within  three  years  of  the  operation  of  the  power  loom 
at  Waltham,  Rhode  Island  was  also  performing  all  its 
processes  by  machinery.  But  the  improvements  at  Wal- 
tham having  been  patented  and  their  use  held  at  a  high 
price,  most  of  the  mills  built  in  Rhode  Island  adopted  the 
crank  loom,  and  instead  of  the  patented  speeder  used  the 
tube  speeder  invented  by  Danforth.  As  many  of  the  mills 
in  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire  adopted  the  Wal- 
tham machinery,  two  methods  or  systems  of  manufacturing 
sprang  up,  one  called  the  Waltham  and  the  other  the 
Rhode  Island  system.  In  one  the  live  spindle  is  used,  in 
the  other  the  dead  spindle;  one  uses  the  mule  for  filling, 
the  other  the  filling  frame;  in  one  case  the  crank  loom  is 
employed,  while  in  the  other  it  is  the  cam  loom.  One  uses 
the  Scotch  dresser,  the  other  the  Waltham  dresser,  and 
many  manufacturers  are  still  undecided  which  is  the  best. 
Mule  spinning  was  not  introduced  into  the  Waltham  sys- 
tem until  after  1830.  The  crank  loom,  however,  came  into 
use  in  Waltham  about  ten  years  after  the  crank  loom  had 
been  installed  in  Rhode  Island.  The  great  difference  which 
existed  between  the  two  systems  of  machinery  was  that 
that  installed  at  Waltham  was  the  work  of  ingenious  mer- 
chants, who,  having  little  knowledge  of  practical  manu- 
facturing, were  guided  more  by  the  facility  of  making  the 
machine  than  by  its  fitness  for  the  use  intended;  while  the 
system  adopted  in  Rhode  Island  was  adapted  to  its  pur- 
pose by  the  practical  knowledge  gained  in  English  fac- 
tories. 

Besides  this  difference  in  machinery  there  was  a  striking 
divergence  in  the  method  of  treating  the  employees.  In 
Slater's  mills,  which  set  the  pattern  for  Rhode  Island,  the 
English  plan  of  employing  whole  families,  including  chil- 
dren who  were  very  young,  was  adopted,  and  it  led  to  the 
bringing  of  families  into  the  industrial  centres  that  were 
wholly  dependent  upon  the  mills  and  that  suffered  severely 
when  there  was  no  work.  Payments,  too,  were  made  in 


200  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

goods  supplied  at  a  factory  store  instead  of  the  cash  method 
followed  at  Waltham.  At  Waltham  wages  were  paid  every 
week  or  two  weeks,  and  boarding-houses  in  charge  of  a 
matron  were  provided  for  the  employees,  the  conditions  of 
which  precluded  the  work  of  children  or  militated  against 
the  employment  of  whole  families. 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  THE  CITY  OF  LOWELL  AND  THE  START- 
ING OF  THE  MERRIMAC  MANUFACTURING  COMPANY 

Although  the  cotton  industry  suffered  from  a  marked 
depression  from  1817-20,  owing  to  the  effect  of  the  War 
of  1812,  the  factories  at  Waltham  during  this  period  had 
been  uniformly  successful,  paying  a  dividend  of  12  per 
cent,  annually.  The  success  of  the  Waltham  enterprise 
caused  Lowell,  Jackson,  and  Appleton  to  turn  their  at- 
tention to  establishing  another  mill  at  a  place  where  there 
would  be  greater  water  facilities,  and  as  early  as  1820  they 
began  inquiries  for  a  suitable  site. 

The  falls  of  the  Souhegan  River  near  its  junction  with 
the  Merrimac  were  first  examined,  but  it  was  decided  the 
power  would  not  do.  A  few  days  later  Paul  Moody  ac- 
companied his  wife  to  Bradford  to  visit  a  daughter  who 
was  at  school  there  and  incidentally  to  meet  some  gentle- 
men and  to  examine  the  water  power.  It  happened  to 
rain,  and  the  gentlemen  did  not  appear,  so  Moody  rode  on 
to  Amesbury,  where  he  met  Ezra  Worthen,  a  mechanic 
who  worked  with  him  at  Waltham. 

"Why  don't  you  go  to  the  Pawtucket  Falls?"  said 
Worthen,  when  told  what  Moody  was  searching  for. 
"There  is  a  power  there  worth  ten  times  as  much  as  you 
will  find  anywhere." 

Accompanied  by  Worthen,  Moody  went  to  Chelmsford 
and  saw  the  Pawtucket  Falls,  where  Lowell  now  is,  and 
reported  to  Jackson  and  the  others  that  the  falls  at  Paw- 
tucket would  give  the  whole  power  of  the  Merrimac  with 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  201 

a  fall  of  over  thirty  feet.  Jackson  and  Kirk  Boott,  an 
Englishman  who  had  consented  to  take  the  management  of 
the  projected  enterprise,  examined  the  site,  and,  deciding 
that  it  was  advantageous,  steps  were  quickly  taken  to 
secure  the  stock  of  the  canal  and  to  obtain  sufficient  land 
to  control  the  water  power.  Boott  had  long  been  familiar 
with  the  territory,  as  he  was  in  the  habit  of  hunting  over  it, 
and  he  and  Thomas  M.  Clark,  agent  of  the  Canal  Com- 
pany at  Newburyport,  were  empowered  to  buy  property. 

The  territory  of  Lowell  comprised  in  1821  about  four 
square  miles  and  had  fifteen  hundred  inhabitants,  mainly 
farmers,  who  lived  by  cultivation  of  the  rough  fields  and  by 
fishing  the  Concord  and  the  Merrimac,  which  meet  here  in 
the  towns  of  Chelmsford  and  Dracut;  and  from  its  situa- 
tion at  the  junction  of  the  two  rivers  the  site  was  originally 
called  Chelmsford  Neck,  or,  by  the  Indians,  Wamaset. 
Clark  and  Boott  succeeded  in  acquiring  about  four  hundred 
acres  at  about  a  hundred  dollars  per  acre,  acquiring  for 
about  forty  thousand  dollars  land  which  sold  later  for  a 
dollar  per  square  foot. 

It  is  said  that  Boott  represented  to  the  farmers  that  he 
wanted  to  raise  wool  and  fruit,  and,  when  they  learned  how 
they  had  sold  valuable  mill  privileges  for  a  song,  their  rage 
was  furious,  and  found  expression  in  a  song  which  everybody 
sang: — 

"There  came  a  young  man  from  the  old  countree, 
The  Merrimac  River  he  happened  to  see. 
'What  a  capital  place  for  mills!'  quoth  he, 
Ri-toot,  ri-toot,  ri-toot." 

Another  verse  related  how  Boott  persuaded  the  shrewd 
Yankee  farmers  to  sell  their  water  power  for  nothing,  and 
it  continued, — 

"And  then  these  farmers  so  cute 
They  gave  all  their  lands  and  their  timbers  to  Boott, 
Ri-toot,  ri-toot,  ri-toot." 


202  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

Boott  was  of  strong  English  leaning,  and  on  one  Fourth 
of  July  raised  the  English  flag  above  the  stars  and  stripes 
and  would  not  take  it  down.  A  mob  gathered,  and  pulled 
it  down.  He  was  born  in  Boston  in  1791,  had  studied  at 
Rugby,  England,  and  for  a  time  was  a  student  at  Harvard. 
He  served  as  an  officer  in  the  English  army  in  the  Penin- 
sula campaign  under  Wellington,  and  at  the  siege  of  San 
Sebastian  in  1813  he  commanded  with  great  bravery  a 
detachment  of  troops.  After  his  resignation  from  the  army 
in  1817,  he  returned  to  Boston,  where  he  engaged  in  business, 
spending  much  of  his  spare  time  shooting  and  fishing  in  the 
towns  of  Chelmsford  and  Dracut. 

Boott's  part  in  the  establishment  of  the  Lowell  mills 
aroused  the  anger  of  English  manufacturers,  and  this  enmity 
went  so  far,  it  was  reported,  that  emissaries  were  sent  from 
England  to  take  his  life  and  attempts  were  made  to  kill 
him. 

The  Pawtucket  Canal  Company,  the  stock  of  which  he 
and  Clark  were  empowered  to  buy,  had  been  incorporated 
in  1792  under  the  name  of  "The  Proprietors  of  the  Locks 
and  Canals  on  Merrimac  River"  for  the  purpose  of  making 
the  Merrimac  River  navigable  to  Newburyport.  The 
construction  in  1793  of  the  Middlesex  Canal,  however, 
which  opened  communication  with  Boston,  was  a  barrier 
to  the  commercial  success  of  the  canal  to  Newburyport,  so 
that  the  proprietors  built  only  a  small  canal  for  the  passage 
of  wood  and  lumber  around  Pawtucket  Falls.  As  the  in- 
come to  the  original  proprietors  from  the  canal  up  to  1820 
had  hardly  averaged  3J^  per  cent,  a  year,  it  was  easy  for 
Messrs.  Boott,  Appleton,  Jackson,  and  the  others  to  pur- 
chase the  six  hundred  shares  which  represented  a  paid  in 
capital  of  sixty  thousand  dollars. 

Patrick  T.  Jackson,  Kirk  Boott,  Warren  Button,  Paul 
Moody,  John  W.  Boott,  and  Nathan  Appleton  made  their 
first  visit  to  the  property  November,  1821,  during  a  snow- 
storm. One  of  the  company  remarked  that  they  might 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  203 

live  to  see  the  bleak,  barren  place  which  then  had  less  than 
a  dozen  houses  have  a  population  of  twenty  thousand 
people.  Articles  of  association  were  drawn  up  under  the 
name  of  the  Merrimac  Manufacturing  Company,  Dec.  1, 
1821,  with  a  capital  stock  of  six  hundred  shares,  and  Kirk 
Boott  was  appointed  the  treasurer  and  agent  of  the  com- 
pany at  a  salary  of  three  thousand  dollars.  He  was  also 
authorized  to  buy  the  remainder  of  the  canal  stock,  and  the 
Merrimac  Company  took  over  from  him  such  interest  in  the 
Canal  Company  as  was  deemed  for  their  advantage  to  own. 

The  Merrimac  Manufacturing  Company  was  granted 
incorporation  by  the  legislature,  Feb.  5,  1822,  and  the  fol- 
lowing directors  were  chosen,  who  ordered  an  assessment  of 
five  hundred  dollars  per  share:  Warren  Dutton,  Patrick  T. 
Jackson,  Nathan  Appleton,  Israel  Thorndyke,  Jr.,  John  W. 
Boott;  and  Kirk  Boott  was  made  treasurer  and  clerk,  while 
Warren  Dutton  was  elected  president.  The  original  share- 
holders were  as  follows:  P.  T.  Jackson,  180  shares;  N. 
Appleton,  180  shares;  John  W.  Boott,  90  shares;  Kirk 
Boott,  90  shares;  Paul  Moody,  60  shares.  And  later  it 
was  voted  to  permit  the  following  to  subscribe:  Dudley 
Tyng,  5  shares;  Warren  Dutton,  10  shares;  Timothy 
Wiggin,  25  shares;  William  Appleton,  25  shares;  Eben 
Appleton,  15  shares;  Thomas  M.  Clark,  2  shares;  D. 
WTebster,  4  shares;  Benjamin  Gorham,  5  shares;  Nathaniel 
Bowditch,  4  shares;  and  the  Boston  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany, 150  shares.  D.  Webster  was  Daniel  Webster,  who 
is  said  to  have  never  paid  for  his  shares,  and  they  were  sub- 
sequently sold  to  some  one  else. 

The  shares  in  the  Locks  and  Canals  Company  were  paid 
to  the  several  directors  in  trust,  and  a  committee  appointed, 
consisting  of  Patrick  T.  Jackson  and  Nathan  Appleton, 
to  settle  Mr.  Boott's  account  for  $18,399,  which  he  had 
spent  to  secure  for  his  associates  the  farm  lands  of  Nathan 
Tyler,  Josiah  Fletcher,  and  $30,217,  paid  for  three  hun- 
dred and  thirty-nine  shares  in  the  Locks  and  Canals  Com- 


204  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

pany.  The  new  proprietors  of  the  Locks  and  Canals 
Company  at  once  enlarged  the  canal  to  sixty  feet  wide  and 
eight  feet  deep,  at  a  cost  of  a  hundred  and  twenty  thou- 
sand dollars.  Collateral  canals  were  subsequently  built, 
and  a  contract  made  with  the  Boston  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany for  machinery  for  two  mills. 

Finally,  in  August,  1823,  the  projectors  of  the  Merrimac 
Manufacturing  Company,  who  now  also  owned  the  Locks 
and  Canals,  paid  the  Waltham  Company  seventy-five  thou- 
sand dollars  for  all  their  patterns  and  patent  rights,  and 
also  for  the  release  of  the  services  of  Mr.  Paul  Moody,  who 
had  been  under  contract  to  work  for  the  Waltham  Com- 
pany. The  mills  of  the  Merrimac  Company  were  placed 
where  they  could  use  the  whole  thirty-feet  fall  of  the  Merri- 
mac, and  the  wheels  were  first  started  on  Sept.  1,  1823, 
while  the  first  dividend  of  a  hundred  dollars  per  share  was 
paid  in  1825.  The  first  cloth  made  was  so  coarse  in  text- 
ure peas  could  be  shot  through  it,  and  it  cost  37J^  cents 
per  yard. 

The  proprietors  of  the  Locks  and  Canals  erected  a  large 
brick  machine  shop  and  commenced  the  building  of  mill 
machinery.  They  soon  undertook  the  complete  construc- 
tion of  mills  and  the  installation  of  machinery,  selling  land 
and  water  privileges  to  manufacturing  companies,  digging 
the  necessary  canals,  erecting  the  mills,  building  and  in- 
stalling the  machinery,  and  turning  the  whole  over  to  the 
manufacturing  company  that  had  been  formed.  Enormous 
profits  were  made  on  the  original  cost  of  the  land,  and  hand- 
some profits  were  derived,  not  only  from  the  construction 
of  the  plants,  but  also  from  the  sale  of  the  water  privileges. 
Kirk  Boott  was  the  original  agent  of  the  Locks  and  Canals 
Company,  as  well  as  that  of  the  Merrimac  Manufacturing 
Company. 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  205 


NAMING   OF  LOWELL 

Such  was  the  beginning  of  Lowell,  which  took  its  name 
from  Francis  C.  Lowell,  the  originator  of  the  first  complete 
cotton  mill  in  the  world.  Some  difficulty  was  experienced 
in  determining  a  suitable  name  for  the  new  manufacturing 
town,  and  one  day  Mr.  Nathan  Appleton  met  Mr.  Kirk 
Boott,  who  remarked  to  Mr.  Appleton  that  the  legislative 
committee  was  ready  to  report  on  the  bill  incorporating 
the  town,  and  it  only  remained  to  fill  the  blank  with  the 
name. 

"I  consider  the  question  narrowed  down  to  two,  Lowell 
or  Derby,"  said  Mr.  Boott.  Derby  was  suggested  by 
Mr.  Boott  because  of  his  family  associations  with  that 
place,  and  also  because  it  was  in  the  vicinity  of  one  of  the 
earliest  seats  of  English  cotton  manufacture. 

"Then  Lowell,  by  all  means,"  replied  Mr.  Appleton,  who 
considered  the  honor  due  Mr.  Francis  C.  Lowell. 

It  was  incorporated  in  1824  into  a  town  distinct  from 
Chelmsford,  of  which  it  had  formed  a  part.  Lowell  became 
a  city  in  1836.  Its  population  in  1830  was  6,477;  ac- 
cording to  the  census  of  1910,  it  was  106,294. 

The  first  cloth  made  by  the  Merrimac  Manufacturing 
Company  was  gray,  as  the  business  of  printing  calico  was 
entirely  new  in  this  country.  Various  methods  had  been 
used  in  experimenting  in  the  printing  of  calico.  The  en- 
graving of  the  cylinder,  which  had  superseded  the  old  method 
of  printing  by  blocks  of  wood,  had  come  into  use  in  England, 
but  knowledge  of  it  was  closely  guarded  from  the  public. 
Attempts  at  making  copper  printing  cylinders  at  Lowell 
were  unsuccessful,  and  engraved  cylinders  were  imported 
from  England.  Finally,  Mr.  Boott  went  to  England  solely 
for  the  purpose  of  securing  engravers.  Through  the  efforts 
of  the  chemist  Dr.  Samuel  L.  Dana  and  John  D.  Prince, 
of  Manchester,  the  task  of  engraving  was  finally  accom- 
plished, and  the  first  calico  printed  had  a  width  of  twenty- 


206  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

seven  inches,  which  was  two  inches  above  the  average  of 
British  prints.  Only  fast  colors  were  used,  and  this,  to- 
gether with  the  greater  durability  secured  from  the  use  of 
the  throstle  in  place  of  the  mule  spinning,  combined  to  make 
the  goods  better  than  any  others. 

The  first  prints  were  poor  in  texture  and  color.  The 
ground  was  a  madder,  and  it  had  a  white  spot.  As  described 
by  Mrs.  Robinson,  who  wrote  "Loom  and  Spindle,"  and, 
as  a  girl,  worked  in  these  early  mills,  "it  proved  a  garb  of 
humiliation,  for  the  white  spots  washed  out,  cloth  and  all, 
leaving  me  covered  with  eyelet  holes." 

The  calico  printers  who  were  brought  over  from  England 
became  dissatisfied  with  their  terms,  and  left  town,  with 
their  families,  in  a  large  wagon,  with  a  band  of  music. 
New  terms  had  to  be  made  before  they  would  return.  The 
first  enduring  color  printed  was  indigo  blue. 

Boarding-houses  for  operatives  were  early  established 
by  the  mill  corporations  at  Lowell,  and  these  houses  were 
strictly  supervised.  The  dietary  provided  for  fresh  meat 
at  least  twice  a  week,  and  that  they  should  not  be  obliged 
to  eat  fresh  salmon  more  than  once  a  week.  It  was  further 
provided  that  a  bed  should  be  kept  empty  for  a  certain 
number  of  the  occupants,  so  there  would  be  a  place  for  any 
one  who  might  be  taken  ill.  A  report  of  illness  was  sent 
at  once  to  the  mill  agent,  so  that,  as  it  was  before  the  days 
of  hospitals  in  New  England,  skilled  medical  attendance 
could  be  provided.  The  boarding-houses,  as  well  as  the 
mills,  were  supplied  from  elevated  tanks  with  running  water. 
The  place  of  these  tanks  was  later  taken  by  a  special  reser- 
voir, which  antedated  the  introduction  of  municipal  water 
works.  The  paved  brick  sidewalks  with  granite  crossings 
that  were  provided  from  the  boarding-houses  to  the  mill 
doors  were  probably  the  first  continuous  walks  of  their 
kind  in  New  England. 

The  condition  of  the  early  employees  of  Lowell  is  thus 
described  by  Mr.  Shirreff,  an  English  fanner,  who  came 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  207 

to  America  to  learn  if  it  would  be  best  to  allow  a  younger 
brother  to  emigrate: — 

"Females  engaged  in  manufacturing  amount  to  nearly 
5,000,  and  as  we  arrived  at  Lowell  on  the  afternoon 
of  Saturday  we  had  an  opportunity  of  seeing  those  con- 
nected with  some  of  the  largest  cotton  manufactories  re- 
turning from  labor.  All  were  clean,  neat  and  fashionably 
attired  with  reticules  hanging  from  their  arms,  and  calashes 
on  their  heads.  They  commonly  walked  arm  and  arm 
without  levity.  The  general  appearance  and  deportment 
were  such  that  few  British  gentlemen  in  the  middle  ranks 
of  life  need  have  been  ashamed  of  leading  any  of  them  to  a 
tea  party.  Next  day  being  Sunday,  we  saw  the  young 
females  belonging  to  the  factory  going  to  church  in  their 
best  attire,  when  the  favorable  impressions  of  the  preceding 
evening  were  not  effaced.  They  lodged  generally  in  board- 
ing houses,  and  earn  eight  shillings  six  pence  sterling  per 
week  independent  of  board.  Sewing  girls  earn  about  four 
shillings  six  pence.  The  recent  introduction  of  large  man- 
ufacturing establishments  and  this  population  account 
for  the  comfort  and  prosperity  of  the  Lowell  young  women." 

Dickens,  in  his  "American  Notes,"  describes  a  visit  made 
to  several  of  the  factories  at  Lowell  in  1842,  such  as  a  woolen 
factory,  a  cotton  factory,  and  a  carpet  factory,  and  says 
that  he  reached  the  first  factory  as  the  girls  were  returning 
from  lunch  to  their  work,  gave  his  comments  upon  then* 
neat,  well-dressed  appearance,  and  their  extreme  cleanli- 
ness, and  he  noted,  too,  their  healthy  appearance  and  ad- 
mirable manners  and  deportment.  He  learned  there  was 
as  much  fresh  air  and  comfort  as  the  nature  of  the  occupa- 
tion would  permit,  and  declared  that  in  all  the  crowd  he 
saw  in  the  factories  on  the  day  of  his  visit  he  could  not 
recall  one  young  face  that  gave  him  a  painful  impression, 
nor  one  young  girl  whom  he  would  have  removed  from 
the  works,  had  he  had  the  power. 

Dickens  found  a  few  children  employed  in  these  factories, 


208  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

but  not  many,  and  even  at  this  early  date  Massachusetts 
forbade  their  working  more  than  nine  months  during  the 
year.  He  also  praised  the  boarding-houses,  and  speaks  of 
there  being  a  joint  stock  piano  in  many  of  them.  He 
comments  also  on  the  girls  subscribing  to  circulating 
libraries,  and  mentions  the  Lowell  Offering,  a  repository 
of  original  articles  written  exclusively  by  women  employed 
in  the  mills.  In  short,  Dickens  regarded  the  industrial 
conditions  at  Lowell  as  not  only  superior  to  those  with 
which  he  was  familiar  in  England,  but  quite  above 
criticism. 

Kurd's  History  of  Middlesex  County  quotes  Daniel 
Knapp  as  giving  this  account  of  the  way  cotton  was  cleaned: 
"In  the  spring  of  1814  my  parents  were  young  laboring 
people,  with  five  small  children,  the  oldest  not  over  eleven 
years  old.  We  had  the  cotton  brought  to  our  house  by  the 
bale  to  pick  to  pieces  and  get  out  the  seeds  and  dirt.  We 
children  had  to  pick  so  many  pounds  per  day  as  a  stint. 
We  had  a  whipping  machine  made  four  feet  square,  and 
about  three  feet  from  the  floor  was  a  bedcord  running  across 
from  knob  to  knob  near  together,  on  which  we  put  a  parcel 
of  cotton,  and  with  two  whip  sticks  we  tightened  it  up 
and  got  out  the  dirt  and  made  it  ready  for  the  card.  My 
mother  was  carrying  on  the  bleaching  business  at  the  time. 
There  was  no  chemical  process.  The  bright  sun,  drying 
up  the  water,  did  its  bleaching.  This  was  the  mode  of 
bleaching  at  this  time." 


STARTING  OF  FIRST  MILLS 

The  first  sale  made  by  the  Locks  and  Canals  Company 
after  its  reorganization  by  the  promoters  of  the  Merrimac 
Manufacturing  Company  was  to  the  Hamilton  Manufact- 
uring Company  in  1825,  which  started  with  a  capital  of  six 
hundred  thousand  dollars.  The  mill  made  twilled  and  fancy 
goods,  and  the  first  cotton  mill  drill  which  played  such  a 


9 
O 

o 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  209 

part  in  the  trade  with  the  East  was  made  in  this  mill.  The 
Appleton  Company  and  the  Lowell  Company  were  started 
in  1828,  and  the  Suffolk,  Tremont,  and  Lawrence  Compa- 
nies began  work  in  1830  through  the  efforts  of  Amos  and 
Abbott  Lawrence,  to  whom  the  Locks  and  Canals  Com- 
pany gave  reduced  terms  because  of  the  stringent  business 
conditions  of  1829. 

The  Boott  Company  began  operations  in  1835,  and  the 
Massachusetts  Company  in  1839.  Further  improvements 
in  the  construction  of  a  canal  along  the  bank  of  the  river 
and  the  rights  to  control  the  outlets  of  Winnepesaukee 
were  established.  Then,  too,  changes  in  the  water  power 
rights  were  effected,  by  which  the  corporations  instead  of 
being  lessees  of  the  water  power  became  part  proprietors, 
and  from  then  on  Lowell's  development  was  continuous 
and  rapid.  In  1911  there  were  871,900  spindles,  20,303 
looms,  and  $12,900,000  capital  engaged  in  the  textile  busi- 
ness in  Lowell. 


CHAPTER  IX 

OTHER  TEXTILE  CENTRES 

PHILADELPHIA      THE       GREATEST       TEXTILE-PRODUCING       CITY       OF 

AMERICA — SILK  INDUSTRY   IN   PHILADELPHIA DEVELOPMENT   OF 

THE  WOOLEN  INDUSTRY TEXTILE  MACHINERY CARPET  IN- 
DUSTRY— LATER  GROWTH — FOUNDATION  OF  LAWRENCE — BE- 
GINNING OF  FALL  RIVER COLONEL  DURFEE*S  MILL THE  TROY 

AND  FALL  RIVER  MILLS — EARLY  LOOMS,  WORK,  AND  WAGES — 
OTHER  COMPANIES PROVIDENCE PATERSON,  N.J. NEW  BED- 
FORD— MANCHESTER — AMOSKEAG  LAYS  OUT  A  TOWN — NEW 
YORK — AMSTERDAM — WOONSOCKET,  R.I. — CONCLUSION. 

The  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  witnessed  the 
firm  establishment  on  a  manufacturing  basis  of  the  textile 
industry  in  America,  and  the  history  of  this  development 
is  that  of  the  great  textile  centres,  where,  owing  to  either 
natural  advantages  or  the  enterprise  of  far-sighted  mer- 
chants, the  industry  was  planted  and  flourished.  These 
centres  in  the  order  of  the  value  of  their  production  are 
Philadelphia,  Lawrence,  Fall  River,  New  York,  Paterson, 
New  Bedford,  Lowell,  Providence,  Manchester,  Pawtucket, 
Woonsocket,  and  Amsterdam.  Much  of  the  story  of  some 
of  these  cities  has  already  been  told  in  previous  chapters. 
To  complete  it,  however,  some  further  facts  must  be  given 
about  the  growth  of  the  industry  in  these  cities. 

To-day  Philadelphia  is  the  greatest  manufacturing  city 
of  woolen  hosiery  and  knit  goods  and  carpets,  New  York 
the  greatest  centre  for  the  cutting  up  trade  or  manufacturing 
clothier,  while  Fall  River  leads  as  a  cotton-producing  centre, 
New  Bedford  as  the  greatest  producer  of  fine  cotton  goods. 
Lawrence  is  the  greatest  centre  in  the  United  States  for 
worsted  goods,  and  Paterson  the  great  silk  centre.  Phil- 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  211 

adelphia's  manufacture  of  textiles  exceeds  $153,000,000 
annually,  while  that  of  the  next  two  largest  textile  cities, 
Lawrence  and  Fall  River,  aggregates  only  $126,000,000. 
Considering  Lawrence,  Fall  River,  Lowell,  and  New  Bed- 
ford as  cities  of  Boston's  environment,  the  output  of 
"Greater  Boston"  is  $211,000,000. 

According  to  the  United  States  Census  the  textiles  in- 
clude carpets,  cordage,  jute,  linen  goods,  nets  and  seines, 
cotton  goods,  including  cotton  small  wares,  dyeing  and 
finishing,  hosiery  and  knit  goods,  shoddy,  silk  manufactures, 
woolen  and  worsted  manufactures,  wool  pulling,  wool 
scouring,  felt  goods,  wool  hats  and  fur  felt  hats. 

The  production  of  the  twelve  leading  textile  cities  of  the 
United  States,  according  to  the  1909  census,  was:  Philadel- 
phia, Pa.,  $153,000,000;  Lawrence,  Mass.,  $70,000,000;  Fall 
River,  Mass.,  $56,000,000;  New  York,  N.Y.,  $52,000,000; 
Paterson,  N.J.,  $50,000,000;  New  Bedford,  Mass.,  $44,- 
000,000;  Lowell,  Mass.,  $41,000,000;  Providence,  R.I., 
$37,000,000;  Manchester,  N.H.,  $23,000,000;  Pawtucket, 
R.I.,  $23,000,000;  Woonsocket,  R.I.,  $20,000,000;  Am- 
sterdam, N.Y.,  $17,000,000. 

The  total  value  of  the  output  of  the  textile  industries 
of  the  United  States  in  1909  was  $1,684,636,500,  or  $200,- 
000,000  more  than  all  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  Phila- 
delphia produced  nearly  one-tenth  of  all  the  textiles  of  the 
United  States,  or  more  than  any  other  two  cities  com- 
bined, and  the  value  of  the  textile  product  exceeds  that 
of  any  other  city  of  the  world. 

The  earliest  efforts  at  textile  making  in  Philadelphia 
began  soon  after  1682,  when  the  city's  manufactures  of 
coarse  woolens  excited  the  jealousy  of  England  and  led  to 
prohibitive  legislation.  The  proficiency  was  no  doubt  due 
to  the  premiums  for  the  production  of  cloth  offered  by  the 
proprietors  of  the  province,  one  of  the  first  being  awarded 
Abraham  Opdengrafe  in  1686  for  a  piece  of  linen,  and  soon 
after  Wigert  Levering,  a  Germantown  settler,  is  mentioned 


212  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

as  a  weaver  by  trade.  The  first  manufacturers  of  hosiery 
were  those  of  the  sect  known  as  Mennonites,  who  about  this 
time  had  set  up  in  their  homes  in  Germantown  the  stocking 
frames  they  brought  from  Germany,  and  thus  started  the 
industry  for  which  Germantown  was  to  become  famous. 

Wool  was  being  made  into  druggets,  serges,  and  camlets 
in  1698,  and  among  the  trades  mentioned  are  dyers,  fullers, 
comb  makers,  card  makers,  weavers,  and  spinners.  Wool 
combers  and  carders  received  twelvepence  per  pound,  and 
journeyman  tailors  twelve  shillings  per  week  and  their  diet. 
Charles  Blackman,  who  enjoyed  the  governor's  favor,  was  the 
first  tailor  mentioned.  An  evidence  that  the  industry  was 
already  well  established  is  the  fact  that  Charles  Lawrence, 
who  had  come  from  Carolina,  offered  for  sale  in  1721,  at 
his  place  of  business  on  Chestnut  Street,  "Very  good  sleys, 
tombles,  and  shuttles  for  weavers."  John  Cam,  who  had 
emigrated  from  Ireland,  was  spoken  of  in  1723  as  a  stocking 
weaver,  as  was  also  Alexander  Mack,  Jr.,  son  of  the  founder 
of  the  religious  sect  known  as  "Dunkers,"  and  Germantown 
had  thus  early  become  the  headquarters  in  America  of  the 
hand  stocking  weavers,  one  hundred  Germantown  hosiers 
being  referred  to  in  1777  as  out  of  work. 

The  first  knitting  mill  in  America  was  started  in  1825  by 
Thomas  R.  Fisher  in  Germantown,  and  it  was  known  as 
the  Wakefield  Mill.  Previous  to  this  each  man  had  worked 
his  own  frame  in  his  own  house,  but  Fisher  persuaded  a 
number  of  knitters  to  operate  their  machines  under  one 
roof.  He  offered  to  buy  the  frames;  but,  as  the  knitters 
refused  to  sell,  he  imported  frames  from  England,  and 
knitters  too,  and  was  soon  able  to  operate  his  own  frames 
with  his  own  workmen.  Already  numbers  of  knitters  from 
Leicester  and  Nottingham  had  settled  in  Germantown,  and 
little  by  little  the  knitting  industry  grew  until  it  took  the 
leading  position  it  now  holds. 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  213 


SILK   INDUSTRY   IN    PHTL.ADEL.PmA 

Influenced  by  the  strenuous  efforts  made  by  the  mother 
country  to  establish  the  silk  industry  in  her  colonies,  Phil- 
adelphia turned  her  attention  to  the  silk  industry  about 
1750,  and  offered  premiums  for  the  growth  of  the  silkworm 
as  well  as  opened  a  filature.  A  London  paper  under  date 
of  Nov.  7,  1765,  states  that  one  hundred  silk  throwsters 
had  started  for  New  York  and  Philadelphia.  Benjamin 
Franklin  in  1769  influenced  his  adopted  city  to  open  another 
filature,  and  in  1771  twenty-three  hundred  pounds  of  cocoons 
were  bought  and  reeled  by  a  society  formed  to  promote  the 
industry. 

Dresses  of  domestic  silk  were  made  and  worn  before  the 
Revolution,  some  of  which  have  been  handed  down  as  hen-- 
looms to  the  present.  But  the  Revolution  terminated  the 
industry,  and  it  was  not  resumed  until  1815,  when  W.  H. 
Horstmann  came  from  Cassel,  Germany,  and,  having  learned 
the  art  of  silk  weaving  in  France,  established  himself  in 
Philadelphia  as  a  silk  manufacturer.  He  was  the  first  to 
use  the  Jacquard  loom  in  America,  introducing  it  in  1824, 
and  also  inventing  a  number  of  machines  used  in  different 
branches  of  the  silk  manufacture.  His  son,  William  J. 
Horstmann,  in  1837-38  made  power  looms  from  his  own 
design  and  introduced  power  loom  weaving  for  narrow 
fabrics.  Silk  manufacturing  in  Philadelphia  has  since 
grown  until  in  1910  there  were  seventy-seven  firms  making 
silk  goods  of  various  kinds  in  Philadelphia. 


DEVELOPMENT   OF  THE   WOOLEN  INDUSTRY 

The  woolen  and  flax  homespun  industry  started  in  Phila- 
delphia, as  it  did  in  the  other  colonial  cities,  immediately 
after  the  town's  settlement,  and  little  by  little  grew  as  the 
needs  of  the  people  required  fabrics. 

In  1760  there  were  twelve  fulling  mills  in  Philadelphia, 


214  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

and  in  1765  a  number  of  citizens  and  butchers  agreed  not 
to  eat  or  kill  sheep  under  twelve  months  old  for  a  period 
of  two  years.  About  the  time  the  Stamp  Act  was  repealed 
in  1766,  Daniel  Mause,  a  hosier,  had  set  up  a  number  of 
looms  at  the  sign  of  the  "Hand  in  Hand"  Stocking  Manu- 
factory on  the  west  side  of  Second  Street,  between  Race 
and  Vine  Streets,  where  he  made  thread  and  stockings,  and 
"hoped  the  good  people  of  his  and  neighboring  provinces 
would  encourage  the  undertaking." 

But  so  little  had  manufacturing  grown  in  Philadelphia 
by  1767  that  John  Penn,  in  a  letter  to  the  Lord  Commis- 
sioner for  Trade  and  Plantation,  on  January  21  of  that  year 
said  that  very  little  encouragement  was  given  manufacturing, 
and  he  only  knew  of  two  industries.  One  had  been  started 
three  years  ago  by  private  subscription  for  making  sail 
cloth,  ticking,  and  linens,  but  the  persons  interested  had 
not  carried  it  on,  but  sank  their  money  and  discontinued 
the  project,  as  the  high  price  of  labor  made  it  impossible 
to  compete  with  English  goods.  The  other  was  a  glass 
manufactory,  which  was  started  seventy  miles  from  Phila- 
delphia, in  Lancaster  County,  to  supply  the  demands  of 
the  villagers  and  small  farmers  in  the  neighborhood. 

The  approach  of  the  Revolution,  the  growing  needs 
of  the  colonists,  and  the  time  and  expense  it  took  to  obtain 
goods  from  England  led  Philadelphia,  as  well  as  other 
colonial  centres,  to  consider  the  question  of  home  manu- 
factures, and,  when  the  convention  of  delegates  from  the 
Pennsylvania  provinces  was  held  in  1775,  various  newspaper 
writers  recommended  the  establishment  of  woolen  manu- 
factures. One  writer,  who  signed  himself  "Hibernian," 
proposed  the  formation  of  a  patriotic  society  to  manufacture 
woolen  with  a  permit  to  raise  one  thousand  pounds  by 
lottery.  Weavers,  he  wrote,  could  be  had  from  Ireland. 
The  expense  of  importing  twenty-nine  workmen  with  yarn 
and  worsted,  wheels,  reels,  looms,  steel,  three-pitched 
combs,  a  press,  and  bedding  for  the  twenty-nine  hands,  was 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  215 

estimated  at  five  hundred  and  fifty  pounds.  Six  thousand 
pounds  of  yarn  could  be  bought  for  four  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds,  but  the  profits  of  manufacture  were  not  calculated. 

The  first  joint  stock  company  in  the  United  States  was 
organized  in  1775  in  Philadelphia  to  make  cotton  goods, 
and  was  known  as  the  United  Company  of  Philadelphia 
for  Promoting  American  Manufacturing.  It  was  the  pro- 
genitor of  the  American  Manufactory,  the  earliest  cotton 
and  woolen  manufactory  in  America.  Samuel  Wetherill, 
Jr.,  who  was  instrumental  in  the  formation  of  the  manufac- 
tory, had  in  1775,  on  South  Alley,  a  factory  for  woolens  that 
supplied  the  Revolutionary  army,  and,  when  the  price  of 
wool  rose  so  high  that  he  could  not  avoid  loss,  he  notified 
the  Board  of  War  that  he  would  be  unable  to  fill  his 
contract. 

The  colonial  government  of  Pennsylvania  encouraged 
home  industries  by  offering  medals  and  money  for  the  best 
cloth;  and  John  Hague  in  1778  received  one  hundred 
pounds  for  introducing  machines  for  carding  cotton.  The 
same  year  John  Hewson,  the  first  calico  printer,  sought 
financial  support  from  the  Assembly,  as  did  also  Edward 
Clegg,  of  Great  Britain,  who  was  about  to  establish  a  mill 
for  corduroys  and  jeans.  By  1784  fulling  mills  were  very 
numerous  in  Philadelphia,  and  by  1810  three  woolen  mills 
had  been  established  in  Philadelphia,  and  one  in  German- 
town. 

TEXTILE  MACHINERY 

Philadelphia  has  long  been  a  centre  for  textile  machinery. 
As  early  as  1777  Oliver  Evans  made  teeth  for  cards  by  a 
machine  of  his  own  invention,  which  turned  them  out  at 
the  rate  of  fifteen  hundred  per  minute.  When  the  State 
rejected  his  proposal  to  erect  a  factory  under  State  patron- 
age, he  disclosed  his  secret  to  individuals,  and  soon  many 
were  making  cards.  In  1788  Giles  Richards  &  Co.  began 
making  them  with  machines.  F.  G.  Richards,  Amos 


216  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

Whittemore,  and  Mark  Richards  turned  out  about  twelve 
thousand  annually. 

From  1792  to  1794  a  number  of  carding  machines  were 
made,  and  efforts  exerted  to  build  spinning  frames  on  Ark- 
wright's  principle.  At  the  Globe  Mills,  to  which  we  have 
already  referred,  several  mules  of  one  hundred  and  twenty 
spindles  were  installed. 

The  first  regular  machinery  for  cotton  manufacturing 
was  established  at  Holmesburg  in  1810  by  Alfred  Jenks, 
who  had  learned  all  he  knew  from  Slater.  In  1830  Jenks 
invented  the  power  loom  for  weaving  checks. 

Little  by  little  the  industry  became  well  established, 
and  different  societies  were  formed  to  stimulate  it.  The 
Philadelphia  Premium  Society,  organized  in  1801,  did  much 
to  foster  the  industry  by  giving  premiums  for  improvements 
in  art  and  manufacture,  and  no  longer  did  Penn's  statement 
about  the  lack  of  manufacturing  apply  to  Philadelphia. 

Fairs  and  sales  were  held,  one  of  the  first  sales  being  in 
1789,  under  the  auspices  of  the  manufacturing  committee 
of  the  Pennsylvania  Society,  when  printed  cottons,  cor- 
duroys, federal  ribs,  jean,  flax,  and  tow  linens  were  offered. 
According  to  John  Mellish,  who  wrote  a  description  of  his 
travels  in  America  in  1806-07  and  1809-11,  the  manufact- 
ures of  Philadelphia  were  rising  into  great  importance, 
hats,  stockings,  and  a  great  variety  of  cloth  were  being  made, 
and  an  export  trade  had  begun. 


CARPET   INDUSTRY 

The  carpet  industry,  for  which  Philadelphia  has  long 
been  noted,  began  before  the  Revolution  and  gradually 
became  a  prominent  industry.  The  first  manufacturer 
mentioned  was  William  Calverly,  of  Loxley's  Court,  whose 
carpets  in  1774  were  thought  to  be  superior  to  those  im- 
ported, and  were  shown  as  such  at  the  Coffee  House.  Turk- 
ish and  Axminster  carpets  were  first  made  by  William 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  217 

Peter  Sprague  in  1791  in  Northern  Liberty.  He  wove 
a  national  pattern  with  device  representing  the  crest 
and  armorial  achievements  of  the  United  States.  Phila- 
delphia floor  cloths,  oil  cloths,  and  carpets  began  to  attract 
wide  attention  soon  after  1800.  John  Dorsey,  a  mer- 
chant, with  two  looms  commenced  making  floor  carpets  and 
oil  cloths  in  1807  on  Chestnut  Street,  and  he  wove  a  sail 
duck  seven  yards  in  width.  One  man  could  turn  out  thirty- 
two  or  forty-five  yards  of  carpet  a  day,  which  sold  for  from 
$1.50  to  $2.25  per  yard,  depending  upon  the  colors  used. 
Another  factory  was  established  by  Isaac  Macauley  at 
Market  Street  in  1808,  where  he  made  oil  cloths  in  one, 
two,  three,  and  four  colors.  He  bought  out  Dorsey  in  1810, 
and  began  manufacturing  on  a  wider  scale.  Setting  up 
carpet  looms  and  importing  workmen  from  Kidderminster, 
England,  he  spun  his  own  yarn  and  wove  canvas  twenty- 
one  feet  wide  for  oil  cloth,  as  well  as  the  first  Brussels  carpet 
in  America. 

In  1811  Philadelphia  had  273  looms,  3,648  spinning  wheels, 
186  looms  and  fly  shuttles,  4,423  spindles  in  factories, 
165  stocking  looms  in  hosiery  factories,  8  print  works,  4 
print  cutting  establishments.  The  population  of  the  city 
was  in  1810  111,210,  and  the  total  value  of  all  manufactures 
was  $16,103,389. 

LATER   GROWTH 

The  close  of  the  war  with  Great  Britain  in  1815  brought 
such  an  influx  of  English  goods  that  the  domestic  industries 
were  threatened  with  extinction,  and  Thomas  Gilpin  and 
other  Philadelphia  manufacturers  protested  to  the  govern- 
ment against  the  ad  valorem  rate  of  duty,  which  led  to 
false  valuation,  and  asked  for  specific  duties  in  hope  of  sav- 
ing the  home  industry;  but  the  introduction  of  the  power 
loom  did  more  than  the  tariff  to  save  the  struggling  indus- 
try, and  little  by  little  it  became  prosperous  again.  There 
were  in  Philadelphia  in  1815,  2,325  persons  engaged  in  the 


218  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

cotton  industry,  and  1,226  in  the  woolen.  By  1821  four 
thousand  looms  were  at  work.  In  1827  the  Frankford 
Woolen  Mills  were  established,  and  in  1829  the  Conestoga 
Print  Works,  by  Thomas  Hunter.  Andrew  and  William 
McCallum,  two  Scotchmen,  started  their  carpet  manu- 
factory in  1830,  and  in  1831  the  Germantown  Hosiery  Mills 
were  started  under  the  direction  of  John  Button,  whose 
father  was  a  lace  maker  of  Leicestershire,  England.  Button 
had  at  first  but  two  small  machines  for  knitting  hosiery, 
which  he  had  brought  from  England,  and  first  made  chil- 
dren's hose.  As  he  was  the  only  one  who  had  this  ma- 
chinery, for  several  years  he  had  quite  a  monopoly,  but  later 
made  adult  hose  as  well.  Germantown  knit  goods  rapidly 
became  famous,  and  mill  after  mill  sprang  up. 

The  Oxford  Carpet  Mills  were  started  in  1832  by  William 
Hogg,  and  also  the  Hinckley  Knitting  Mills  by  Aaron 
Jones,  who  set  up  two  old-fashioned  knitting  frames.  The 
city  and  neighborhood  in  1827  had  104  warping  mills, 
4,500  weavers,  over  200  dyers,  3,000  spoolers,  and  2,000 
bobbin  winders.  The  blue  broadcloth  known  as  Lafayette 
Blue,  dyed  in  1832  by  F.  Tassard  with  prussiate  of  potash, 
was  the  first  use  in  America  of  Prussian  blue. 

The  Keystone  Knitting  Mills  were  started  in  May,  1861, 
by  Thomas  Dolan,  who  had  been  a  commission  merchant, 
and  since  then  the  development  of  Philadelphia  has  steadily 
grown.  According  to  the  last  census  the  gross  value  of 
Philadelphia's  textile  products  was  $153,000,000. 


FOUNDATION   OF  LAWRENCE 

The  history  of  the  foundation  and  development  of  Law- 
rence bears  close  analogy  to  that  of  Lowell,  save  that  one 
man  instead  of  several  conceived  the  enterprise  and  carried 
on  the  preliminary  work  necessary  to  its  successful  start. 

That  man  was  Daniel  Saunders,  of  Andover,  Mass.,  who 
had  become  interested  in  the  project  by  the  merest  accident. 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  219 

He  came  by  chance  some  time  before  1835  into  possession  of 
a  plan  showing  the  grades  and  locks  for  a  canal  from  Lowell 
to  the  tide-water  on  the  Merrimac,  and,  studying  it  closely, 
concluded  there  was  considerable  aggregate  fall  of  water 
between  the  two  points,  though  apparently  there  was  little 
individual  fall  in  the  few  slight  rapids. 

As  Saunders  had  been  engaged  in  the  woolen  business,  he 
realized  the  value  of  the  water  power  for  mill  work,  and 
determined  to  investigate  for  himself.  Accordingly,  with 
a  companion  and  equipped  with  only  a  straight  edge  and 
a  spirit  level  he  went  over  the  falls  between  the  two  points, 
and  discovered  the  great  power  hidden  in  the  insignificant 
rapids.  He  kept  the  information  from  all  but  his  im- 
mediate family,  to  whom  he  freely  predicted  the  possibility 
of  a  great  manufacturing  city  on  the  Merrimac  in  the  towns 
of  Methuen  and  Andover,  and  set  about  buying  land  suffi- 
cient to  control  the  water  power.  In  1840  he  began  pur- 
chasing land  at  the  head  of  Peters  Falls,  some  distance  above 
where  the  first  mills  were  built,  and  also  bought  an  island 
and  some  land  lower  down.  Soon  he  had  sufficient  to  con- 
trol Peters  Falls,  and  thus  the  whole  power  of  the  river. 
He  had  enough  land  by  1843  to  deem  it  safe  to  lay  his  plan 
before  J.  G.  Abbott,  John  Nesmith,  and  Samuel  Lawrence, 
all  residents  of  Lowell,  and  they  formed  the  Merrimac 
Water  Power  Association,  with  Daniel  Saunders,  Jr.,  Abbott 
Lawrence,  Thomas  Hopkinson,  and  Jonathan  Tyler,  of 
Lowell,  and  Nathaniel  Stevens,  of  Andover,  as  the  other 
stockholders. 

The  company  set  about  securing  more  land  to  protect 
their  rights.  Some  adverse  criticism  of  the  scheme  arose, 
and  many  of  those  sceptical  of  the  success  of  the  enterprise 
called  the  scheme  "Saunders'  Folly."  It  was  proposed  to 
call  the  new  town  Saunders,  but  Mr.  Saunders  objected, 
suggesting  that,  as  it  was  on  the  Merrimac  and  there  was 
no  town  in  Massachusetts  by  that  name,  it  be  called  Mer- 
rimac, and  so  it  was  called  until  April  17,  1847,  when  it 


220  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

was  incorporated  as  a  town  and  took  the  name  of  Lawrence 
in  honor  of  Abbott  Lawrence,  one  of  the  subscribers  to  the 
enterprise. 

Saunders  in  eighteen  months  had  bought  up  all  the  land 
needed  save  a  few  parcels,  and  controlled  in  all  between 
three  and  four  thousand  acres.  On  March  20,  1845,  Daniel 
Saunders,  Samuel  Lawrence,  John  Nesmith,  and  Edmund 
Bartlett  received  a  charter  as  the  Essex  Company. 

In  the  privately  printed  Memoir  of  Abbott  Lawrence, 
by  H.  A.  Hill,  it  is  said  that  on  the  day  that  the  Massachu- 
setts legislature  passed  the  bill  incorporating  the  Essex 
Company,  successor  to  the  Merrimac  Water  Power 
Association,  all  of  the  incorporators,  among  them  Mr. 
Abbott  Lawrence,  were  at  the  State  House,  and  as 
soon  as  the  measure  was  signed  started  to  North  Andover 
by  rail,  and  thence  proceeded  to  the  falls  at  Lawrence  by 
carriages. 

The  company  consisted  of  Messrs.  Abbott  Lawrence, 
William  Lawrence,  Samuel  Lawrence,  Francis  C.  Lowell, 
John  A.  Lowell,  George  W.  Lyman,  Theodore  Lyman, 
Nathan  Appleton,  Patrick  T.  Jackson,  William  Sturgis, 
John  Nesmith,  Jonathan  Tyler,  James  B.  Francis,  and 
Charles  S.  Storrow,  the  engineer  of  the  enterprise. 

Under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Daniel  Saunders  a  careful 
examination  of  the  neighborhood  was  made  and  the  various 
plans  for  harnessing  the  water  power  were  discussed  upon 
the  spot.  Subsequently  the  party  sat  down  to  dinner  at  the 
Merrimac  House  in  Lowell.  After  dinner,  steps  were  taken 
toward  a  permanent  organization. 

Mr.  Abbott  Lawrence  and  Mr.  John  A.  Lowell  retired  for 
a  few  minutes'  consultation,  and  when  they  returned  offered 
the  Water  Power  Association  for  all  of  its  rights  and  interest 
thirty  thousand  dollars  over  and  above  the  reimbursement 
of  all  expenses  previously  incurred.  It  was  also  agreed  to 
carry  out  all  of  the  agreements  of  the  Associates  for  the 
purchase  of  land  to  secure  flowage  rights  and  to  head  the 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  221 

organization  of  the  Essex  Company  by  a  large  subscription 
of  stock. 

The  proposition  was  accepted,  and  the  preliminaries  were 
signed  the  same  day,  March  20,  1845.  Mr.  Lawrence  was 
the  first  and  largest  subscriber  to  the  Essex  Company,  tak- 
ing a  thousand  shares  at  a  hundred  dollars  each,  and  was 
its  first  president.  On  April  16  stock  to  the  amount  of  a 
million  dollars  was  issued,  with  Abbott  Lawrence,  Nathan 
Appleton,  Ignatius  Sargent,  and  William  Sturgis  as  direc- 
tors. Charles  Storrow  was  made  agent  and  chief  engineer. 

A  great  dam  was  completed  across  the  Merrimac  Sept. 
19,  1848,  canals  were  dug,  and  the  town  site  was  laid  out, 
work  being  begun  Aug.  1,  1845. 

The  Washington  Mill,  built  in  1846,  was  the  first  one  com- 
pleted, and  E.  A.  Bourne  was  chosen  president.  It  started 
the  next  year,  when  it  took  the  name  Bay  State  Mills, 
woolen,  worsted,  and  cotton  goods  being  made.  The  Bay 
State  shawls,  first  made  in  1848,  and  the  blue  flannel  coat- 
ings, first  turned  out  in  1859,  were  widely  known.  A  few 
months  later  the  second  mill,  the  Atlantic,  was  started, 
and  the  first  cotton  arrived  Jan.  12,  1849,  consigned  to 
the  Atlantic  Cotton  Mills,  of  which  Mr.  Lawrence  was  also 
president  and  one  of  the  largest  stockholders. 

The  Pacific  Mills,  named  from  the  Pacific  Ocean,  were 
incorporated  in  1853,  and  at  that  time  were  the  largest 
works  of  their  kind  in  the  world.  Their  original  capital 
was  $2,000,000.  Mr.  Abbott  Lawrence  was  president. 
The  mills  in  1857  had  to  ask  an  extension  of  credit,  and 
Mr.  Lawrence  contributed  several  hundred  thousand  of 
his  personal  fortune  to  save  the  enterprise,  upon  which 
one-third  of  the  people  of  Lawrence  were  dependent.  Since 
the  struggles  of  these  early  days  the  Pacific  Mills  have 
been  very  successful,  and  their  products  are  known  over 
the  world.  Other  mills  have  since  sprung  up,  one  of  which, 
the  Wood  Worsted,  which  is  owned  by  the  American  Woolen 
Company,  is  the  largest  worsted  mill  in  the  world.  The 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

population  of  Lawrence,  which  in  1845  was  a  few  hundred, 
was  85,892  in  1910,  and  had  1,138,876  spindles  in  1911. 
The  Census  Bureau  reports  that  the  value  of  its  textile 
products  is  $70,000,000  annually. 

BEGINNING   OF   FALL   RIVER 

The  greatest  cotton  manufacturing  centre  of  America 
is  Fall  River,  Mass.  In  one  hundred  years  the  cotton  in- 
dustry has  transformed  a  high,  rocky  knoll  on  the  shores  of 
Mount  Hope  Bay,  which  was  once  the  scene  of  many  an 
Indian  skirmish  between  King  Philip's  tribe  and  the  Pequot 
and  Narragansett  Indians,  from  a  town  in  1800  of  2,535 
people  into  a  city  in  1910  of  119,205  which  hums  with  the 
whir  of  3,936,944  spindles  and  with  the  clatter  of  93,904 
looms.  Colonel  Durfee's  original  mill  when  it  started 
in  1811  contained  not  more  than  five  hundred  spindles. 

The  great  development  of  Fall  River  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  moist  climate  of  the  neighborhood  makes  it  one  of 
the  few  places  in  America  where  the  textile  industry  has 
that  degree  of  humidity  so  needed  in  the  weaving  of  cotton 
goods,  and  also  to  the  fact  that  the  headlong  plunges  which 
the  stream  of  water  known  as  the  Quequechan  River,  or 
"The  Stream,"  takes  here  over  its  rocky  bed  on  its  way  to 
mingle  with  the  ocean,  furnished  the  water  power  so  essen- 
tial to  the  early  mills. 


COLONEL   DURFEE  S  MILL 

The  influence  of  Samuel  Slater,  who  had  been  so  success- 
ful in  introducing  to  America  English  methods  of  manu- 
facturing cotton,  led  Colonel  Joseph  Durf  ee,  a  Revolutionary 
patriot  who  lived  in  Tiverton  Village,  to  organize  and  con- 
struct in  1811,  in  what  was  then  the  village  of  Fall  River, 
the  Globe  Mill,  the  first  mill  built  there.  Colonel  Durfee 
had  been  a  selectman  of  his  town  and  had  served  in  the 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  223 

i 

Revolution.  When  the  British,  who  during  the  Revolu- 
tion held  Newport,  attempted  to  raid  the  territory  of 
Globe  Village,  Durfee  formed  and  led  the  home  guard 
which  repulsed  them.  At  the  tune  he  organized  the  com- 
pany he  was  sixty-one  years  old,  and  owned  much  of  the  land 
where  Fall  River  now  is,  and  thus  controlled  the  water  power. 

The  ownership  of  Durfee's  mill  was  divided  into  100 
shares,  which  he  sold  to  his  neighbors  and  friends  as  follows: 
Joseph  Durfee,  of  Tiverton,  40;  Seth  Simons  (carpenter), 
of  Providence,  40;  Nathan  Chase,  Tiverton,  5;  Boulston 
Brayton,  Tiverton,  3;  William  Durfee,  Tiverton,  2;  Ben- 
jamin Bray  ton,  Gray,  2;  Elisha  Fuller,  Rehoboth,  1;  Rob- 
ert Hazard,  Rehoboth,  1;  and  Nathan  Cole,  Rehoboth,  6. 
His  argument  in  inducing  his  friends  to  buy  the  stock  was 
that  "cotton  cloth  would  darn  much  easier  than  linen  and 
ought  to  be  popular  in  the  home." 

The  original  mill,  a  small  one-story  wooden  building  that 
stood  on  the  north-east  corner  of  Globe  and  South  Main 
Streets,  was  burned,  and  later  the  old  building  now  standing 
was  erected.  It  is  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet  in  length, 
thirty-two  feet  wide,  with  a  projection  on  the  west  side 
about  thirty-one  feet  by  eight,  and  three  stories  in  height. 
The  original  mill  had  a  water  wheel  that  was  operated  by 
the  flow  from  the  Globe  ford  which  had  been  dammed,  and 
contained  only  a  few  spinning  frames,  cards,  and  a  calender, 
and  had,  as  we  have  said,  but  five  hundred  spindles. 

The  cotton  was  sent  out  to  the  farmers'  families  to  be 
picked  and  cleaned,  and  then  was  spun  by  the  mill.  The 
spun  roll  was  then  again  sent  out  to  be  woven,  and  the  cloth 
was  finished  by  the  mill.  It  is  not  known  how  much  of  the 
machinery  was  driven  by  power,  although  the  mill  had  a 
tub  wheel  which  gave  such  uneven  power,  according  to  the 
flow  of  the  water,  that  the  threads  were  not  only  constantly 
breaking,  but  the  machines  often  went  so  fast  they  fell 
apart.  The  workmen  were  inexperienced,  the  hours  of  work 
averaging  about  sixteen,  the  pay  about  $1.20  per  day,  and 


224  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

the  output  was  very  crude.  The  finished  goods  were  carted 
two  miles  to  Fall  River  proper,  whence  they  were  shipped 
by  schooner  to  Providence  and  the  neighboring  territory, 
where  they  were  sold. 

In  spite  of  Durfee's  persistency  in  constantly  trying  new 
devices  to  improve  the  crude  machinery  which  was  contin- 
ually breaking,  he  was  unable  to  make  a  success  of  the  under- 
taking, and,  although  the  mill  was  run  by  the  residents  of 
the  little  village  until  1829,  it  was  never  a  financial  success, 
and  Durfee  died  a  poor  man  in  1843. 

From  1829  to  1839  the  plant  was  operated  as  print  works, 
being  known  from  1835  to  1839  as  the  Tiverton  Print  Works. 
After  many  vicissitudes  the  mill  came  into  the  hands  of  the 
present  owner,  The  Globe  Yarn  and  Laurel  Lake  Mills  Com- 
pany, and  is  held  by  them  because  of  the  water  power  it  con- 
trols. Many  interesting  mementos  of  the  old  mill  are  still  in 
existence,  such  as  time  sheets  that  contain  the  names  and  pay 
of  the  old  workmen.  Among  the  names  of  the  workers  are 
those  of  the  ancestors  of  some  of  the  leading  professional 
and  business  men  of  Fall  River  to-day. 


THE   TROY  AND   FALL   RIVER  MILLS 

If  Colonel  Durfee's  venture  was  not  a  success,  he  at  least 
pointed  to  the  direction  of  Fall  River's  real  prosperity  and 
led  the  way,  for  in  1813  other  residents  of  Fall  River  followed 
the  path  which  he  had  blazed.  In  this  year  two  corpora- 
tions for  the  manufacturing  of  cotton  and  woolen  cloth  were 
formed,  known  respectively  as  the  Troy  Manufactory  Com- 
pany, later  called  the  Troy  Cotton  and  Woolen  Manufac- 
tory, and  the  Fall  River  Manufactory.  The  incorporators 
of  the  Troy  corporation — so  called  because  at  that  time 
Fall  River  was  a  village  in  the  town  of  Troy — were  A. 
Borden,  Clark  Chase,  Oliver  Chace,  James  Maxwell,  Jona- 
than Brown,  William  Slade,  N.  M.  Wheaton,  Oliver  Earl, 
Eber  Slade,  Joseph  C.  Luther,  Sheffel  Weaver,  John  Stock- 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  225 

ford  for  Charles  Wheaton  and  self,  Nathaniel  Wheeler, 
James  Driscoll,  Benjamin  Slade,  Daniel  Buffington,  Heze- 
kiah  Wilson,  Benjamin  Durfee,  William  Read,  Robinson 
Buffington,  John  Martin,  and  Benjamin  Buffington.  The 
capitalization  was  fifty  thousand  dollars.  The  Fall  River 
Manufactory  with  a  capital  of  forty  thousand  dollars  was 
incorporated  by  David  Anthony,  Dexter  Wheeler,  and  Abra- 
ham Bowen.  The  Fall  River  Manufactory  was  organized 
Feb.  11,  1813,  and  the  Troy  Cotton  and  Woolen  Manu- 
factory March  8,  1813.  The  mill  of  the  Fall  River  Manu- 
factory was  completed  in  October,  1813,  and  was  about 
sixty  feet  by  forty  feet,  three  stories,  the  lower  being  of 
stone  and  the  upper  two  of  wood,  as  it  was  said  "there 
was  not  enough  stone  in  Rhode  Island  to  finish  it  with." 
It  started  some  tune  before  the  Troy  mill,  the  erection  of 
which  was  completed  in  September,  1813,  though  work  at 
the  Troy  mill  did  not  commence  until  the  middle  of  March, 
1814.  The  Troy  mill  was  built  of  stone  from  the  neighbor- 
ing fields,  was  four  stories  in  height,  had  a  low  hip  roof, 
and  was  one  hundred  and  eight  feet  long  and  thirty-seven 
feet  wide.  As  compared  with  the  mammoth  mills  of  to-day, 
these  mills  were  infants,  but  they  were  the  forerunners  of 
all  that  followed. 

Strange  to  say,  all  of  the  original  mills,  Durfee's,  the 
Troy  and  the  Fall  River  mills,  were  burned,  and  the  present 
structures  were  built  on  the  old  sites.  Mill  after  mill 
sprang  up,  the  cotton  being  brought  to  Fall  River  in  small 
sailing  vessels,  having  been  hauled  to  the  Southern  coast 
by  mules  or  horses  or  brought  down  the  streams.  Little 
cotton  was  then  cultivated  in  the  South  at  a  distance  remote 
from  the  coast,  and  a  great  deal  was  brought  to  New  York 
and  reshipped  to  New  England.  So  bad  was  the  condition 
in  which  it  was  received  from  the  South  that  it  had  to  be 
sent  out  by  the  mills  to  women  in  the  neighborhood,  who 
picked  out  by  hand  the  seed  that  still  clung  to  the  cotton. 


226  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

EARLY  LOOMS,   WORK,    AND   WAGES 

In  the  beginning  these  mills  spun  only  the  cotton  for  the 
weaving,  the  yarn  being  put  out  to  be  woven  on  hand  looms 
by  women  in  the  neighborhood.  The  first  power  weaving 
was  done  in  the  Fall  River  Manufactory  in  1817,  on  a  heavy, 
clumsy  loom,  invented  by  Dexter  Wheeler,  that  frequently 
got  out  of  order,  while  the  dressing  was  so  poor  that  often 
the  yarn  would  mildew  and  rot  on  the  beam. 

The  first  loom  is  said  to  have  been  started  by  Sarah 
Winters,  the  second  by  Mary  Healy,  and  the  third  by 
Hannah  Borden.  The  cloth  was  woven  a  yard  wide  by 
weavers  who  received  $2.50  per  week,  and  was  sold  for 
twenty-five  cents  in  the  stores  that  were  often  a  part  of 
the  mills.  In  1819  fifteen  hands  ran  thirty  looms  in  the 
Fall  River  mill.  Three  were  employed  in  the  dressing-room, 
ten  in  the  carding-room.  In  all  the  mill  had  not  more  than 
thirty-five  employees.  The  work  began  at  5  A.M.  in  summer, 
and  as  soon  as  it  was  light  at  other  times.  At  eight  o'clock 
there  was  a  half -hour  for  breakfast,  and  at  noon  another  half- 
hour  for  dinner.  In  some  of  the  Fall  River  mills  the  male 
help  at  eleven  o'clock  were  treated  to  New  England  rum. 
At  7.30  P.M.  the  work  stopped  and  the  mills  shut  down. 
On  Saturdays  the  mills  closed  at  four  or  five  o'clock  in 
order  to  allow  the  employees  to  prepare  for  Sunday.  The 
workers  were  then  all  Americans.  A  mill  superintendent 
drew  $2  per  day;  overseers,  $1.25  per  day;  male  workers, 
from  $0.83  to  $1  per  day;  while  women  received  still  less, 
and  boys  or  girls  from  $1  to  $2  per  week. 

Power  looms  were  not  installed  in  the  Troy  mill  until 
the  latter  part  of  1820.  The  spinning  frames  had  seventy- 
two  spindles  each,  and  the  best  spinners  ran  only  a  pair  of 
frames,  which  produced  two  and  one-half  skeins  per  spindle 
a  day.  Blair's  picking  machine  was  first  used  by  the  Fall 
River  Manufactory.  Previously  the  mills  had  been  paying 
four  cents  a  pound  for  hand  picking,  and  five  or  six  pounds 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  227 

were  considered  a  good  day's  work.  The  first  dresser  used 
in  the  Fall  River  mill  warped  the  beam  in  sections  of  about 
an  eighth  of  a  yard  at  a  time;  while  the  roping  until  1825 
was  made  in  cones  with  open  tops  or  with  tops  that  had  to 
be  wound  by  hand  upon  the  bobbin,  and  very  little  of  the 
yarn  was  over  No.  16. 

Here  at  first,  as  elsewhere  in  New  England,  linen  was 
used  for  the  warp  and  cotton  for  the  filling,  or  weft,  but  the 
introduction  of  imported  machinery  soon  produced  cotton 
of  sufficient  strength  to  serve  as  the  warp  as  well  as  the 
weft. 

As  there  were  no  middlemen  in  these  early  days,  the  man- 
ufacturers were  obliged  to  find  their  own  market,  and  cloths 
were  accordingly  sold  directly  from  the  mill  to  the  people 
of  the  surrounding  country.  The  products  were  very 
coarse  sheetings,  and  then  plain  cloths,  and,  when  color  was 
wanted,  the  yarn  was  dyed.  Company  stores  were  gener- 
ally maintained  by  these  earlier  mills,  so  that  the  employees 
seldom  received  their  wages  in  cash,  but  were  generally  paid 
in  provisions  and  other  supplies  from  the  general  store,  over 
the  counters  of  which  the  mills  also  sold  their  products. 


OTHER   COMPANIES 

The  Union  Cotton  Factory  was  started  in  1813  in  a 
small  wooden  building,  on  the  site  of  the  Laurel  Lake  Mills, 
in  what  was  then  Tiverton,  by  Edward  Estes  and  others, 
and  was  the  third  mill  in  Fall  River.  It  was  burned  in 
1838. 

The  fourth  company  to  be  incorporated  in  Fall  River 
was  the  Pocasset  Manufacturing  Company,  which  was  or- 
ganized in  1822  with  a  capital  of  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  the  principal  owner  being  Samuel  Rodman,  of  New 
Bedford,  who  became  its  president,  while  Oliver  Chace,  of 
the  Troy  mill,  was  engaged  as  agent.  The  mill,  which  was 
built  of  stone  and  was  one  hundred  feet  by  forty  feet  and 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

three  stories  high  with  a  long  L  at  the  south  end  extending 
over  the  river,  proved  too  large  for  the  company's  business, 
and  in  1824  Andrew  Robeson,  of  New  Bedford,  hired  a  part, 
and  started  the  first  plant  for  printing  calico  in  Fall  River. 

The  printing  was  first  done  in  the  north  end  of  the  old 
Satinet  Mill,  which  took  its  name  from  the  class  of  woolen 
goods  made  there,  and  the  first  printing  machine  that 
Robeson  used  was  made  by  Ezra  Marble  and  a  French 
immigrant  who  had  obtained  in  France  the  necessary 
knowledge,  and  was  set  up  about  1827,  though  it  was  some 
years  later  that  machine  printing  superseded  the  hand  and 
block  process. 

It  was  soon  found  that  Robeson's  shop  could  not  fill  the 
requirements  of  the  growing  industry,  and  in  1834  Holder 
Borden  organized  the  American  Print  Works,  the  prede- 
cessor of  the  American  Printing  Company.  With  him  were 
associated  many  of  the  stockholders  of  the  Fall  River  Iron 
Works,  another  early  industry  of  Fall  River.  The  Ameri- 
can Print  Works  started  in  January,  1835,  with  four  ma- 
chines, and  handled  from  two  thousand  to  twenty-five 
hundred  pieces  a  week,  and  the  company  has  since  grown 
to  be  the  largest  print  works  in  America. 

Steam  was  first  used  in  Fall  River  in  "the  Doctor's  Mill," 
so  called  because  it  was  later  owned  and  run  by  Dr.  Nathan 
Durfee.  The  mill  was  built  in  1845  at  the  foot  of  Cherry 
Street.  It  was  also  called  the  Massasoit  Steam  Mill. 

Fall  River  was  the  first  American  textile  centre  to  use 
Sharp  &  Roberts  self-acting  mules.  They  were  brought 
to  America  in  1838  by  William  C.  Davol,  who  had  succeeded 
in  purchasing  some  of  the  mules  in  Manchester,  under  an 
agreement  with  the  Sharp  people  that  he  would  manufact- 
ure them  for  the  Sharps  under  an  American  patent.  It 
was  one  thing,  however,  to  buy  the  machines  but  quite 
another  to  take  them  out  of  England,  owing  to  the  jealous 
restrictions  that  she  placed  about  the  exportation  of 
textile  machinery.  To  circumvent  the  law  prohibiting  the 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  229 

machinery  from  leaving  England,  Mr.  Davol  arranged 
with  agents  in  England  to  take  the  machinery  down,  saw 
it  into  small  pieces,  pack  it  in  narrow  boxes  as  if  it 
were  plate  glass,  and  ship  it  to  America  by  way  of  France, 
where  it  arrived  safely  two  years  after  its  purchase.  It 
was  easy  for  Mr.  Davol's  firm  of  machinists, — Haines, 
Marvel  &  Davol, — with  their  expert  knowledge  of  me- 
chanics and  his  familiarity  with  the  machines,  to  put  the 
machinery  together  again  and  duplicate  its  construction  in 
other  machines.  It  was  not  until  1846  that  they  installed 
the  mules  in  the  Metacomet  Mill,  which  he  and  Major 
Bradford  Durfee  constructed  in  that  year  from  plans  they 
brought  from  England. 

In  1832  the  American  Linen  Company  was  organized  to 
make  the  better  grade  of  linen  fabrics,  the  first  of  their 
kind  in  America,  workmen  as  well  as  the  flax  being  brought 
from  England.  At  first  the  mill  was  very  successful,  but, 
as  cotton  fabrics  took  the  place  of  linen,  the  business  fell  off, 
until  finally  in  1838  linen  making  was  abandoned  and  the 
factory  has  since  been  operated  as  a  cotton  mill. 

The  development  of  Fall  River  has  since  been  rapid, 
although  its  progress  has  been  affected  by  the  different 
financial  depressions  which  have  periodically  hampered 
the  American  industry.  Mill  after  mill  has  been  estab- 
lished in  Fall  River  until  to-day  the  city  is  one  of  the 
leading  textile  centres  of  America,  its  annual  product,  ac- 
cording to  the  last  census,  being  $56,000,000. 


PROVIDENCE 

The  beginning  of  the  industry  in  Providence  has  already 
been  briefly  referred  to  in  a  preceding  chapter.  Fulling 
mills  were  in  operation  at  an  early  date.  One  of  the  earliest 
references  to  the  industry  is  in  January,  1704,  when  William 
Smith,  a  weaver,  received  a  piece  of  land  forty  feet  square 
"to  build  a  weaver's  shop  upon,  he  being  desirous  to  follow 


230  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

his  weaver's  trade";  and  in  December,  1700,  Joseph  Smith, 
a  brother,  was  granted  for  the  same  purpose  three  acres  of 
land  near  Wanskuck.  In  1674  Moses  Lippitt  was  inden- 
tured, by  Edward  Sairle  and  Anna  Sairle,  his  step-father 
and  mother,  for  fifteen  years  and  a  half  and  two  months  to 
William  Austin  to  learn  the  trade  of  weaver. 

The  eighteen  young  ladies  of  Providence  belonging  to 
the  "Daughters  of  Liberty,"  of  whom  we  have  already 
spoken,  met  by  invitation  at  the  house  of  Ezekiel  Bowen 
in  1766,  and  spun  linen  from  sunrise  to  sunset  to  encourage 
home  industries.  The  organization  increased  rapidly,  and 
held  meetings  at  the  Old  State  House  on  North  Main 
Street,  where  they  wove  a  handsome  web  of  linen  to  be  given 
as  a  prize  to  the  farmer  who  might  raise  the  most  flax  that 
year.  The  General  Assembly  for  a  time  offered  a  bounty 
of  one-third  of  the  value  of  the  finished  product. 

Soon  after  the  peace  of  1783  Rhode  Island  began  turning 
its  attention  to  manufactures,  and  in  1787  the  first  company 
in  the  State  for  the  manufacture  of  cotton  was  formed  at 
Providence.  Its  object  was  to  make  homespun  cloth  by 
hand.  The  first  enterprise  was  begun,  as  we  have  related, 
under  the  auspices  of  Daniel  Anthony,  Andrew  Dexter,  and 
Lewis  Peck.  They  built  a  jenny  of  twenty-eight  spindles 
after  the  Orr  models  at  Bridgewater,  and  set  it  up  in  a 
private  house  at  Providence,  and  subsequently  moved  it  to 
the  market  house  and  operated  it  there;  after  that  a  spin- 
ning frame  having  eight  heads  of  four  spindles  each.  The 
spinning  frame  constructed  was  afterwards  taken  to  North 
Providence  to  be  worked  by  water,  but  it  was  found  to  be 
too  imperfect  for  use. 

While  the  experiments  were  being  made  in  the  chamber 
of  the  market  house,  two  weavers,  Joseph  Alexander  and 
James  McKerries,  came  from  Scotland  to  Providence,  claim- 
ing to  understand  the  use  of  the  fly  shuttle.  McKerries 
settled  in  east  Greenwich,  while  Alexander  took  up  his 
residence  in  Providence.  A  loom  was  built  by  Alexander 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  231 

for  making  corduroys  and  set  up  in  the  market  house.  It 
was  operated,  as  we  have  already  seen,  with  more  or  less 
success,  but  no  one  knew  how  to  cut  the  corduroy  and  give 
it  the  proper  finish,  so  the  manufacture  was  soon  abandoned, 
when  Alexander  removed  to  Philadelphia. 

A  notice  printed  in  the  Gazette  and  Country  Journal,  Aug. 
8,  1789,  read,  "Almost  every  family  seems  more  or  less  en- 
gaged in  this  way"  (promoting  manufactures  in  this  town). 

"There  are  now  also  at  work  a  carding  machine  with  a 
three-foot  cylinder,  two  spinning  jennies  of  sixty  spindles 
each,  and  one  of  thirty-eight  spindles,  and  a  mill  after 
Arkwright's  construction,  which  carries  thirty-two  spindles 
by  water,  from  which  machines,  as  well  as  large  quantities 
spun  by  hand,  Corduroys,  Jeans,  Fustians,  Denims,  &c.,  &c., 
are  making.  There  are  several  other  machines  for  the  Wool 
Manufactory,  among  which  the  Wool  Picker  and  Flying 
Shuttle  are  improvements  every  raiser  of  Sheep  and  Manu- 
facturing Family  should  possess." 

The  arrival  in  1790  of  Samuel  Slater  greatly  stimulated 
the  industry  in  Providence,  as  elsewhere  in  Rhode  Island, 
and  the  first  cotton  thread  spun  by  machinery  in  Rhode 
Island  was  spun  in  the  chamber  of  the  market  house  in 
Providence.  The  first  cotton  thread  spun  by  water  in  the 
United  States  was  spun  in  North  Providence. 

John  Fullem  worked  a  stocking  loom  in  Providence  about 
1788,  and  in  March,  1790,  a  calendering  machine  worked 
by  horse-power  was  set  up  there. 

In  1790  Henry  Vandausen,  a  German,  began  calico 
printing  at  East  Greenwich,  cut  his  own  blocks,  and  printed 
for  people  generally  cottons  and  the  coarse  cotton  wove  in 
families.  But  the  first  print  works  in  the  country  did  not 
prove  profitable  because  of  English  and  Indian  goods. 

In  1794  Messrs.  Schaub,  Tissot  &  Dubosque  engaged 
in  printing  calicoes  in  a  chocolate  mill  later  occupied  by 
the  Franklin  Machine  Company.  Dubosque,  who  had  been 
in  the  French  navy,  learned  calico  printing  in  Alsace  before 


232  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

entering  the  navy.  Calcutta  cottons  were  used,  and  the 
printing  was  done  with  wooden  blocks,  while  the  calendering 
was  done  by  friction  with  flint  stone. 

In  1797  Peter  Schaub  and  Robert  Newell  began  the 
same  business,  cotton  cloths  imported  from  the  East  Indies 
being  used  and  wooden  blocks  employed  to  give  the  figures 
and  colors.  Previously  calico  printing  had  been  carried 
on  at  East  Greenwich.  This  is  supposed  to  have  been  the 
first  calico  printing  done  in  America. 

In  1790,  30,000  yards  of  woolen  cloth  were  made  in  and 
around  Providence;  and,  in  1791,  25,265  yards  of  linen,  5,895 
of  cotton,  3,165  of  woolen,  512  of  carpeting,  4,093  pairs  of 
stockings,  859  pairs  of  gloves,  and  263  yards  of  fringe.  In 
1794  cotton  twist  was  made  at  Providence,  in  Nos.  12,  16, 
20,  which  were  respectively  sold  at  $0.88,  $1.04,  and  $1.21. 

There  were  thirty-eight  cotton  mills  in  Rhode  Island  in 
1812  with  30,669  spindles.  The  first  duty  on  cotton  goods 
was  10  per  cent.  In  1797  it  was  raised  to  12^  per  cent.  At 
the  close  of  the  War  of  1812  a  gigantic  petition  was  sent  to 
Congress  for  protection,  and  in  1815  one  cent  a  spindle  was 
raised  to  pay  the  expenses  of  Agent  James  Burrill  to  repre- 
sent Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island  before  Congress. 
In  1816  the  duty  was  fixed  at  25  per  cent,  ad  valorem  upon 
cotton  and  woolen. 

At  the  close  of  the  War  of  1812,  there  were  99  cotton 
mills  with  75,678  spindles  in  or  near  Providence,  R.I.; 
Massachusetts  had  57  mills  with  45,650  spindles;  Connect- 
icut, 14  mills  with  12,886  spindles;  or  170  cotton  mills 
in  all  with  134,214  spindles. 

Owing  to  Slater's  influence  and  the  abundant  water  power 
about  Providence,  the  industry  developed  rapidly,  and  to-day 
the  territory  within  thirty  miles  of  Providence  is  the  greatest 
textile  centre  in  America.  According  to  the  latest  census 
the  output  amounted  to  $37,000,000. 


/ 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  233 

PATERSON,   N.J. 

The  enterprise  of  Slater  at  Pawtucket  had  also  much 
effect  in  influencing  some  gentlemen  of  New  York,  New 
Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania  to  start  a  movement  for  the  es- 
tablishment of  a  cotton  industry  in  or  around  New  York. 
The  result  was  an  elaborate  plan  for  the  establishment 
of  the  textile  industry  on  the  Great  Falls  of  the  Passaic 
River  and  the  consequent  foundation  of  Paterson  as  one  of 
the  textile  centres. 

The  prime  mover  in  the  enterprise  was  Alexander  Hamil- 
ton, Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  whose  interest  in  early 
American  manufacturing  did  so  much  to  promote  it.  Al- 
though he  did  not  subscribe  to  any  of  the  stock  of  the 
Paterson  company,  his  advice  and  influence  were  most 
potent  in  assisting  the  men  who  were  able  to  undertake  the 
work. 

The  first  meeting  was  held  Nov.  22,  1791,  at  New  Bruns- 
wick, N.J.,  and  a  company  formed  called  the  Society  for 
the  Establishment  of  Useful  Manufactures.  The  following 
directors  were  elected:  William  Duer,  John  Dewhurst, 
Benjamin  Walker,  Nicholas  Low,  Royal  Flint,  Elias 
Boudinot,  John  Bayard,  John  Neilson,  Archibald  Mercer, 
Thomas  Lowry,  George  Lewis,  More  Furman,  and  Alexander 
McComb,  many  of  whom  were  not  only  prominent  citi- 
zens of  New  Jersey,  but  several  of  whom  had  a  national 
reputation. 

The  principal  purpose  was  the  production  of  cotton  yarn 
and  cotton  fabrics,  although  the  company  contemplated 
the  manufacture  of  other  useful  articles.  Nehemiah  Hub- 
bard,  Esq.,  of  Middletown,  Conn.,  was  appointed  general 
superintendent  with  a  salary  of  two  thousand  dollars  a  year. 
Advertisements  for  sites  were  printed  in  the  papers  of  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  and  Trenton,  and  finally  a  committee 
was  appointed  to  fix  the  seat  of  manufacture.  It  was 
finally  voted  by  the  committee,  May  17,  1792,  to  locate 


234  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

the  new  industry  and  the  new  town  at  the  Great  Falls  of 
the  Passaic,  where  the  Passaic  River  breaks  through  the 
range  of  hills  that  rise  about  five  hundred  feet  and  are 
known  as  the  Orange  Mountains,  and  then  flows  into  what 
is  the  lower  part  of  New  York  Harbor. 

The  Great  Falls  had  an  elevation  of  one  hundred  and 
four  feet  above  tide-water  and  were  capable  of  driving  two 
hundred  and  forty-seven  water  wheels.  Here  the  company 
bought  seven  hundred  acres  of  land  for  $8,230,  and,  although 
some  of  the  directors  were  in  favor  of  calling  the  place  after 
Hamilton,  they  named  the  future  town  Paterson  in  honor  of 
William  Paterson,  Governor  of  the  State  of  New  Jersey. 

Resolutions  were  adopted  for  erecting  a  cotton  mill  and 
buildings  to  accommodate  workmen.  Appropriations  were 
made  of  $20,000  for  the  construction  of  a  canal,  $5,000 
for  the  cotton  manufactory  and  machinery,  $12,000  for  the 
print  works,  and  $5,000  for  the  weave-shop  and  equipment. 

The  comfort  of  their  employees  was  also  considered  by 
the  directors  of  the  company,  for  fifty  houses  for  workmen, 
twenty -f our  feet  by  eighteen  feet,  with  a  cellar  and  garret, 
were  to  be  built,  at  a  cost  of  about  two  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars  each.  Any  mechanic,  married  and  of  good  character, 
was  to  have  the  privilege  of  leasing  the  house  on  a  long 
term  of  years  or  of  buying  it  on  the  instalment  plan. 

The  company  on  the  18th  of  July,  1792,  advertised  for 
contracts  to  build  a  canal  thirty  feet  wide  and  a  dam  above 
the  Great  Falls  to  be  four  feet  high  and  for  the  erection  of 
four  stone  mills  and  fifty  houses,  the  units  being  two 
houses  under  one  roof  with  a  parting  wall.  According  to 
the  minutes  of  the  meeting  held  Oct.  1,  1792,  the  paid  in 
capital  amounted  to  $160,000.92,  of  which  $14,139.87  had 
been  spent  for  the  purchase  of  land,  grist  and  saw  mill, 
$7,500  for  machinery,  materials,  and  implements,  and 
$12,545.43  for  building  materials,  salaries,  and  wages. 

Mr.  Hubbard  was  soon  succeeded  by  Major  L'Enfant, 
a  French  engineer  who  had  been  with  Napoleon  and  who 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  235 

had  surveyed  and  laid  out  the  city  of  Washington.  Major 
L'Enfant's  ideas,  however,  were  on  such  a  grand  scale  and 
so  impractical  that  he  was  soon  succeeded  by  Peter  Colt, 
who  had  been  comptroller  of  the  State  of  Connecticut  and 
interested  in  the  Hartford  Woolen  Manufactory.  Colt 
took  charge  in  February,  1793.  A  wooden  building  for 
temporary  occupancy  was  built,  the  cotton  machinery  being 
run  at  first  by  ox-power  until  the  water-power  equipment 
could  be  completed,  and  so  for  many  years  the  building 
bore  the  name  the  "Bull  Mill." 

The  permanent  mill,  which  was  completed  in  the  summer 
of  1794  and  which  was  about  on  the  site  of  where  the  silk 
mill  of  Hammel  &  Booth  stood,  was  of  stone,  ninety  feet 
long,  forty  feet  wide,  and  four  stories  high.  According  to 
the  Connecticut  Journal  of  July  2,  1794,  the  spinning  of 
cotton  by  water  power  began  June  14  of  the  same  year. 
The  dam  and  canal  had  been  completed,  and  the  mill  was 
opened  with  a  parade  and  a  ball,  which  was  given  at  the 
factory.  The  equipment  of  the  factory  seems  to  have  been 
four  carding  machines,  twenty-five  spinning  jennies,  and 
sixty  single  looms.  It  employed  a  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  operatives. 

The  enterprise,  however,  was  not  a  success.  The  ex- 
travagant constructive  work,  together  with  the  mismanage- 
ment said  to  have  been  due  to  an  improper  use  of  the  funds 
by  some  of  the  officers,  led  the  stockholders  to  refuse  to  pay 
further  instalments  on  their  subscriptions,  and  finally  on 
Jan.  26,  1796,  a  resolution  was  adopted  that  the  superin- 
tendent be  directed  to  stop  all  manufacture  as  soon  as  goods 
in  hand  could  be  finished  and  to  discharge  the  help.  Mr. 
Colt  asked  for  his  dismissal,  and  it  was  granted  March  7, 
1797. 

The  factory  remained  unoccupied  until  1800.  John 
Park  then  turned  it  into  a  mill  for  making  candle wicking. 
According  to  James  Beaumont,  an  Englishman  who  visited 
Paterson  to  buy  machinery  in  the  spring  of  1801  and  who 


236  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

visited  the  cotton  factory,  it  was  nearly  full  of  machinery 
of  a  costly  kind,  the  billets  of  the  carding  cylinders  being 
covered  with  mahogany.  The  machines  did  not  seem  to 
have  been  worked,  and  apparently  John  Clark,  who  later 
engaged  in  machinery  manufacturing  in  Providence,  was 
using  the  basement  story  for  making  textile  machinery. 
Clark  continued  to  occupy  the  basement  of  the  factory 
until  the  factory  was  burned  in  1807. 

Since  this  date  the  Society  for  the  Encouragement  of 
Useful  Manufactures  has  not  operated  any  mill  of  its  own, 
but  the  stock  has  acquired  much  value  because  the  company 
has  retained  its  real  estate  and  rights  to  the  water  power, 
which  have  been  used  to  develop  the  subsequent  textile 
industries  as  well  as  other  manufacturing  operations  in 
Paterson. 

The  establishment  of  the  silk  industry  in  Paterson  has 
already  been  referred  to  in  the  chapter  on  silk,  but  these 
further  details  complete  the  story.  The  first  silk  mill 
started  by  Christopher  Colt,  Jr.,  of  Hartford,  was  a  small 
affair,  and  was  bought  in  1840  by  G.  W.  Murray,  of  North- 
ampton, who  put  in  charge  John  Ryle,  an  English  silk 
weaver  from  Macclesfield,  England. 

Ryle  became  a  partner  in  1843,  the  firm  being  Murray 
&  Ryle,  and  in  1846  Ryle  with  his  two  brothers  who  came 
from  England  bought  out  Murray  and  began  weaving  dress 
goods.  Although  the  silk  was  of  excellent  quality,  it  could 
not  be  made  at  a  profit,  and  he  devoted  his  mill  to  tram 
organzines,  spool  silks,  and  trimmings.  Later,  when  his 
sons  became  associated  with  him,  he  successfully  took  up 
the  making  of  twills  and  fancy  silks.  Ryle  has  been  called 
the  father  of  the  Paterson  silk  industry.  Other  mills 
started  in  a  small  way  in  Paterson,  and  little  by  little 
the  industry  grew  until  the  output  has  reached  the  pres- 
ent proportions,  which,  according  to  the  last  census,  was 
$50,000,000  annually. 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  237 


NEW  BEDFORD 

The  beginning  of  the  textile  industry  at  New  Bedford, 
like  the  development  at  Lawrence,  was  due  to  the  enterprise 
of  one  man,  whose  persistence  in  carrying  out  his  purpose 
overcame  all  obstacles. 

About  1840  D wight  Perry  had  left  Fairhaven,  which  is 
across  the  river  from  New  Bedford,  and  had  started  in 
Georgia  a  small  cotton  mill,  having  as  one  of  his  employees 
Thomas  Bennett.  Becoming  desirous  of  having  his  own 
business,  Bennett  returned  to  New  Bedford,  and  endeavored 
to  interest  New  Bedford  capital  in  starting  a  mill  in  Georgia. 
He  persuaded  William  T.  Russell  in  1846  to  go  to  Georgia 
with  him  to  look  into  water  power  and  mill  sites,  and  on 
their  return  tried  unsuccessfully  to  secure  New  York  capital 
for  the  enterprise. 

Meeting  Joseph  Grinnell,  who  was  a  Congressman  from 
New  Bedford,  Bennett  and  Russell  interested  him,  but  he 
refused  to  take  part  in  the  plan  unless  the  mill  was  built 
at  New  Bedford,  where  those  who  invested  might  watch  the 
progress  of  the  enterprise. 

The  opinion  of  David  Whitman,  who  was  a  mill  expert 
and  was  engaged  in  cotton  manufacturing  at  Warwick,  R.I., 
was  sought,  and  his  favorable  opinion  of  the  success  of 
building  a  mill  at  New  Bedford  led  Grinnell  to  back  Ben- 
nett's project.  It  was  decided  to  raise  three  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  and  to  build  a  mill  with  three  hundred 
spindles.  New  Bedford's  capital  at  the  time  was  tied  up 
in  the  whaling  industry,  which  was  then  at  its  height  and 
paying  large  profits,  and  the  holders  of  money  were  very 
loath  to  put  their  capital  into  such  an  uncertain  venture 
as  a  new  cotton  mill  in  New  Bedford.  Not  only  was  the 
sentiment  of  the  citizens  against  the  project,  but  the  me- 
chanics of  New  Bedford  were  opposed  to  it,  because  they 
thought  that  mill  work  with  its  organized  and  regular  busi- 
ness would  be  inimical  to  them.  Only  $157,900  could  be 


238  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

raised,  and  that  in  small  subscriptions  ranging  from  ten  to 
a  hundred  and  fifty  shares.  Grinnell,  who  had  subscribed 
for  $10,000,  took  $2,100  more,  making  $160,000,  with  which 
it  was  decided  to  start. 

A  charter  was  granted  April  8,  1846,  for  the  Wamsutta 
Mills,  Matthew  Luce,  Jireh  Perry,  and  Thomas  S.  Hatha- 
way being  the  incorporators.  Joseph  Grinnell  was  chosen 
president;  Edward  L.  Baker,  treasurer;  and  Joseph  Grin- 
nell, David  R.  Greene,  Thomas  Mandell,  Joseph  C.  Delano, 
and  Pardon  Tillinghast,  directors.  Thomas  Bennett  was 
made  superintendent.  Carpenters,  mechanics,  and  opera- 
tors had  to  be  brought  from  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  and 
the  central  part  of  Massachusetts;  and  all  the  material 
but  the  building  stone,  and  some  of  that,  had  to  be  trans- 
ported from  Fall  River.  Boarding-houses  and  tenements 
were  to  be  constructed  for  the  employees.  At  a  stock- 
holders' meeting  held  June  9,  1847,  it  was  voted  to  buy  a 
tract  of  land  with  power,  south  of  Benjamin  Rodman's,  for 
$7,500,  as  fresh  water  and  railroad  and  shipping  facilities 
were  at  hand. 

Mill  No.  1,  designed  for  fifteen  thousand  spindles  and 
three  hundred  looms,  was  built,  but  only  ten  thousand 
spindles  and  two  hundred  looms  put  in.  It  was  completed 
in  1848,  and  manufacturing  began  Jan.  1,  1849.  Bennett 
recommended  Wamsutta  shirtings,  and  they  have  since 
been  sold  all  over  the  world. 

In  1849  the  capital  stock  was  increased  to  three  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars,  and  five  thousand  more  spindles  and 
one  hundred  more  looms  put  in.  The  first  dividend  was 
declared  Feb.  1,  1850.  Slowly,  but  surely,  the  business  in- 
creased, and  even  the  Civil  War  did  not  close  the  mill. 
Although  the  mill  was  very  successful,  it  was  not  until 
1871,  over  twenty  years  after  the  starting  of  the  Wam- 
sutta Mill,  that  the  second  mill,  the  Potomska  Mill, 
started.  In  the  mean  time,  mill  after  mill  had  been  added 
to  the  Wamsutta,  and  dividend  after  dividend  had  been 


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THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  239 

paid,  until  the  original  stockholders  had  received  over  300 
per  cent,  on  their  money.  The  Acushnet  followed  in  1881, 
and  the  New  Bedford  and  City  Manufacturers  in  1882. 
Mill  after  mill  has  been  erected,  until  there  are  now  over 
fifty  mills  which  turn  out  the  best  grade  of  cotton  goods, 
to  which  the  climate  of  New  Bedford  is  peculiarly  adapted. 
It  is  said  to  be  more  like  that  of  Manchester,  England,  than 
any  other  American  city.  In  1911  the  city  had  2,939,884 
spindles  and  54,282  looms,  supplying  31,140  workmen. 
There  were  sixty-seven  cotton  mills  with  a  capital  of 
$36,821,300.  In  1912  the  population  of  New  Bedford  was 
105,000,  which  turned  out,  according  to  the  last  census, 
$44,000,000  worth  of  goods. 


MANCHESTER 

Like  Lowell  and  Lawrence,  Manchester,  N.H.,  was  a 
"manufactured"  town  that  was  originally  owned  and  de- 
veloped by  the  mill  which  bought  the  water  rights  and  first 
started  its  spindles  in  the  locality.  And,  as  Lowell  and 
Lawrence  had  far-sighted  and  fearless  merchants  whose 
imagination  could  see  the  possibilities  of  a  remote  future,  so 
Manchester  had  men  of  the  same  stamp,  the  first  of  whom 
was  Samuel  Blodgett. 

Blodgett,  who  was  born  in  Woburn,  Mass.,  had  served 
as  sutler  during  the  Revolution,  had  been  a  judge  of  the 
Court  of  Common  Pleas  and  a  merchant,  when  in  1793  he 
went  to  live  at  Derryfield  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Merrimac, 
near  Amoskeag  Falls.  He  built  a  canal  to  carry  lumber 
around  the  falls,  and  completed  the  work  May  11,  1807. 
Appreciating  the  great  power  of  the  water,  he  endeavored 
unsuccessfully  to  interest  Boston  capital  in  mill  develop- 
ment, which  he  saw  could  be  readily  compassed.  He  died 
soon  after  the  completion  of  the  canal,  and  it  passed  into 
the  hands  of  the  Middlesex  Canal.  In  June,  1810,  the  name 
Derryfield  was  changed  to  Manchester  in  honor  of  Judge 


240  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

Blodgett,  who  had  said  that  the  site  would  be  the  Man- 
chester of  America. 

Early  in  1809  Benjamin  Pritchard,  who  had  learned  his 
trade  at  New  Ipswich,  and  had  come  to  Bedford  and  spun 
cotton  on  the  old  Goffe  place,  with  Ephraim,  David,  and 
Robert  Stevens  built  a  cotton  mill  on  the  west  side  of 
Amoskeag  Falls,  in  what  was  then  called  Goffstown.  As 
the  financial  burden  was  too  heavy  for  them  to  carry  alone, 
a  joint  stock  company  was  formed,  and  the  first  meeting 
was  held  Jan.  31,  1810,  as  "The  Proprietors  of  the  Amos- 
keag Cotton  and  Woolen  Factory."  In  June  of  the  same 
year  they  incorporated  as  the  "Amoskeag  Cotton  &  Wool 
Manufactory." 

The  incorporators  were  James  Parker,  Samuel  P.  Eadder, 
John  Stark,  Jr.,  David  McQuestion,  and  Benjamin  Pritchard. 
Parker  was  president,  and  Jotham  Gillis  was  clerk,  and  later 
agent.  The  original  mill  was  a  pygmy  compared  with  the 
great  structures  of  to-day,  for  it  was  but  forty  feet  square 
and  two  stories  high.  It  had  no  cotton  picker,  the  cotton 
being  ginned  in  the  neighborhood  and  by  the  farmers'  wives 
at  four  cents  per  pound,  and  the  machinery  consisted  of  only 
spindles,  the  cotton  spun  being  either  woven  for  the  mill  by 
the  housewives  in  the  neighborhood  or  sold  at  the  mill. 

The  machinery  ran  until  1816.  Lack  of  business  then 
stopped  the  spindles,  and  they  remained  idle  until  1822,  when 
Olney  Robinson,  of  Attleboro,  Mass.,  bought  the  property, 
and  work  was  resumed.  Subsequently  it  was  sold  to 
Lamed  Pitcher  and  Samuel  Slater,  of  Pawtucket,  and  in  1825 
they  sold  three-fifths  of  the  property  to  Willard  Sayles  and 
Lyman  Tiffany,  of  the  firm  of  Sayles,  Tiffany  &  Hitchcock. 
Dr.  Oliver  Dean  became  agent  of  the  company,  and  in  1826 
a  new  mill  was  built,  called  the  "Bell  Mill,"  and  another  on 
an  adjacent  island,  and  the  company  commenced  to  make 
the  sheetings,  ticking,  and  shirtings  that  since  have  made 
the  Amoskeag  Mills  famous.  The  engineer  who  laid  out 
the  new  mill  was  Ezekiel  Straw,  who  also  laid  out  the  Amos- 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  241 

keag  Locomotive  Works  and  who  built  the  first  fire-engine. 
He  was  agent  of  the  Amoskeag  Mills  for  a  great  many  years, 
and  did  much  to  lay  the  foundations  of  their  great  prosperity. 
The  company  was  again  incorporated  July  1,  1831,  as 
the  Amoskeag  Manufacturing  Company  by  Ira  Gay, 
Willard  Sayles,  Oliver  Dean,  Larned  Pitcher,  and  Lyman 
Tiffany,  who  also  acted  with  power  of  attorney  from  Slater, 
and  the  capital  was  a  million  dollars.  Tiffany  was  chosen 
first  president;  Ira  Gay,  clerk;  and  Oliver  Dean,  agent  and 
treasurer.  Tiffany,  Gay,  and  Sayles  became  directors. 


AMOSKEAG  LAYS   OUT   A   TOWN 

The  new  corporation  bought  all  the  water  power  along 
the  Merrimac  from  Manchester  to  Concord  and  all  the  land 
available  for  building  sites  in  Manchester.  The  town  was 
laid  out  by  the  Amoskeag  Company,  streets  and  public 
squares  being  made;  and  in  1838  part  of  the  land  was  divided 
into  lots,  and  sales  began  for  stores  and  dwelling-sites. 
Boarding-houses  and  tenements  were  built  for  their  em- 
ployees, and  land  was  sold  and  water  privileges  leased  to 
other  corporations.  And  thus  the  city  of  Manchester, 
N.H.,  was  founded  by  the  Amoskeag  Company.  The  pay 
of  the  early  agents  was  $180  per  year,  and  outside  weavers 
received  thirty-six  cents  per  day.  The  second  mill,  the 
Stark  Mill,  was  incorporated  Sept.  26,  1836,  with  Nathan 
Appleton  as  president.  In  1830  Manchester  had  but  877 
people,  and  by  the  1910  census  it  had  70,063.  The  gross 
value  of  the  total  output  of  textile  products  during  the 
year,  according  to  the  last  census,  was  $23,000,000. 


NEW  YORK 

The  burghers  of  early  New  York  were  as  proficient  in  the 
handicraft  of  the  home  as  were  the  Puritans  of  New  Eng- 
land, and  among  these  handicrafts  homespun  spinning  and 


242  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

weaving  held  the  principal  place.  Throughout  the  colonial 
era,  evidences  of  the  industry  in  the  homes  of  New  Amster- 
dam are  numerous,  but,  although  the  city  early  made  stren- 
uous efforts  to  compass  the  establishment  of  the  industry 
in  a  sense  that  could  be  called  manufacturing,  the  industry 
never  obtained  so  strong  a  hold  as  it  did  in  New  England 
because  of  the  lack  of  water  power. 

A  society  called  the  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Arts, 
Agriculture,  and  Economy  was  formed  in  1764  to  encourage 
the  manufacture  of  linens.  Another  organization  was 
formed  later,  the  members  of  which  pledged  themselves 
neither  to  buy  imported  cloth  nor  to  eat  the  meat  of  sheep 
or  lambs  less  than  two  years  old.  Homespun  raiment  be- 
came quite  the  vogue.  Governor  Moore  in  1767  reported 
for  New  York  that  there  were  two  kinds  of  wool  being  made 
there:  one  class  of  all  wool;  the  other  linsey-woolsey,  of 
linen  in  the  warp  and  wool  in  the  weft. 

Soon  after  the  Revolution  the  industrial  development  of 
the  city  engaged  the  attention  of  its  residents,  and  late  in 
1788  an  organization  called  "the  New  York  Society  for 
the  Encouragement  of  American  Manufactures"  was 
formed  to  carry  out  this  purpose.  At  one  of  the  first  meet- 
ings, held  Jan.  5,  1789,  at  Rawson's  Tavern,  it  was  unani- 
mously resolved  to  raise  a  fund  to  promote  the  objects 
of  the  society,  and  a  constitution  adopted  at  a  later  meet- 
ing designated  the  purpose  of  the  society  as  that  of  estab- 
lishing house  manufactures  in  the  city  of  New  York,  fur- 
nishing employment  for  the  honest  and  industrious  poor, 
and  named  the  organization  the  New  York  Manufacturing 
Society.  The  treasurer  was  Alexander  Robertson. 

An  advertisement  was  inserted  in  the  New  York  Journal 
for  a  manager  and  superintendent  to  take  charge  of  the 
manufacturing,  and  on  the  3d  of  July,  1789,  notice  was 
given  that  the  society  was  ready  to  do  business  on  its  bleach- 
ground  at  Mill  Hall,  Second  River,  N.J.,  and  that  linen 
cloth  and  yarn  would  be  taken  in  to  bleach  either  there  or 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  243 

at  the  factory,  21  Crown  Street.  It  was  further  announced 
that  good  weavers  would  be  furnished  with  looms  at  their 
own  houses  if  they  would  apply  at  the  factory. 

A  later  advertisement  shows  that  a  Mr.  Stevenson  was 
then  the  manager,  and  that  brown  linen  sheeting,  linen  yarn 
of  the  first  quality,  hatchelled  flax,  tow,  and  backings,  were 
being  sold  at  the  factory  in  Vesey  Street,  to  which  it  had 
been  removed.  By  Dec.  23,  1789,  fourteen  weavers  and 
a  hundred  and  thirty  spinners  were  at  work.  Cotton 
machinery  had  been  started  at  this  date. 

In  a  letter  Moses  Brown  received  from  Samuel  Slater, 
who  was  employed  in  the  factory  during  the  months  of 
November  and  December,  1789,  Slater  said  that  the  factory 
had  but  one  card,  two  machines,  and  two  spinning  jennies, 
and  they  were  very  inefficient.  On  the  3d  of  August,  1789, 
the  directors  ordered  small  notes  to  be  struck  off,  of  one,  two, 
three,  four,  and  five  pence  and  up,  which  they  issued  to 
their  employees  and  received  in  payment  for  goods  pur- 
chased at  the  factory,  and  bound  themselves  to  exchange 
at  all  times  for  gold  or  silver  or  paper  currency  of  the  State. 

An  advertisement  which  appeared  on  Dec.  11,  1790,  shows 
that  the  manufacture  of  cotton  yarns  and  cloth,  as  well  as 
linen,  was  under  way.  The  cotton  and  linen  sheetings 
had  undoubtedly  a  linen  warp  and  cotton  filling.  The 
business,  however,  did  not  prosper,  and  for  a  number  of 
months  subsequent  to  May  9,  1793,  the  factory  was  offered 
for  sale  or  lease. 

There  seems  to  have  been  no  further  effort  at  an  estab- 
lishment of  the  industry  until  about  July  30,  1793,  when 
David  Dickson  and  others  on  New  York  Island,  on  the 
bank  of  the  East  River  opposite  Hell  Gate,  took  steps  to 
start  the  manufacturing  firm  of  Dickson,  Livingston  &  Co. 
by  mortgaging  for  three  thousand  dollars  twenty-eight  acres 
of  land  with  houses,  mills,  and  buildings  at  this  place.  It  is 
not  known  at  what  time  they  began  manufacturing,  but  it 
may  have  been  early  in  1793.  According  to  a  description 


244  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

given  by  an  English  clothier  who  visited  the  factory  in  1794, 
it  was  known  as  Dickson's  Cotton  Factory,  and  was  worked 
by  a  breast  water  wheel  twenty  feet  in  diameter.  There 
were  two  large  buildings,  four  stories  high  and  eighty  feet 
long.  Twenty-six  looms  were  at  work,  weaving  fustians, 
calicoes,  nankeens,  nankinettes,  dimities,  etc.  Ten  looms 
were  being  operated  in  the  neighborhood,  and  the  Arkwright 
system  of  spinning  was  being  worked  by  twelve  or  fourteen 
workmen  from  Manchester.  There  were  twenty  or  thirty 
women  and  children  at  work.  The  women  were  making  two 
dollars  a  week  with  their  board  and  lodging.  This  shows 
that  as  early  as  1794  not  only  was  the  Arkwright  system 
being  used,  but  the  Crompton  mule,  at  a  date  at  least  ten 
years  earlier  than  most  authorities  have  fixed  the  first  use 
of  the  mule  in  this  country.  Already  in  1793  John  Daniel, 
a  European  mechanic,  had  established  himself  in  New  York 
City,  where  he  had  commenced  the  construction  of  carding 
machines  of  all  kinds;  also  the  new  invented  machines  for 
cleaning  seed  cotton,  etc. 

The  power  supplied  to  the  Dickson  mill  came  from  the 
breast  wheel  that  was  driven  by  water  from  a  reservoir 
having  a  fall  of  some  ten  feet,  the  feeder  of  the  reservoir 
being  a  brook  flowing  from  the  hills  in  the  interior  of  Man- 
hattan Island.  If  a  tide  wheel  was  used,  it  was  solely  for 
the  purpose  of  pumping  water  into  the  reservoir  during  the 
dry  season  of  the  year.  The  business  seems  to  have  been 
conducted  until  the  close  of  1793  as  the  New  York  Cotton 
and  Linen  Manufactory.  According  to  Samuel  Batchelder 
the  machinery  was  in  full  operation  in  1795.  The  property 
was,  however,  sold  Dec.  26, 1799. 

These  early  attempts  at  the  textile  industry  on  the  Island 
of  Manhattan  demonstrated  that  it  was  not  feasible  ever  to 
establish  much  of  a  textile  industry  in  the  city  of  New  York. 
As  late  as  1824  the  county  of  New  York  contained  but  three 
fulling  mills,  five  carding  machines,  and  two  cotton  and 
woolen  factories.  Its  greatest  development  has  been  in 


MODERN  AUTOMATIC  NORTHROP  LOOMS 

(Courtesy  of  the  Draper  Company) 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  245 

the  cutting  up  trade  and  the  manufacturing  of  clothing,  to 
which  lines  of  industry  it  owes  its  prominence  as  a  textile 
centre  to-day.  According  to  the  census  these  industries 
have  grown  to  a  size  which  makes  New  York  to-day  the 
leading  city  of  America  in  the  cutting  up  lines,  the  gross 
value  of  its  textile  products,  according  to  the  1910  census, 
being  $52,000,000. 

AMSTERDAM 

The  rugged  figure  of  Sir  William  Johnson,  the  famous 
pioneer  of  middle  New  York,  looms  in  the  background  of 
the  history  of  Amsterdam,  Montgomery  County,  N.Y.  He 
it  was  who  built  the  saw-mill  on  the  Chuctenunda  River, 
which  was  the  beginning  of  the  Amsterdam  industry, 
and  which  later  was  one  of  the  sites  of  the  early  textile 
mills.  Johnson  bought  the  property  about  Amsterdam  in 
1742,  and  utilized  the  water  power  of  the  river  in  the  mill. 
The  little  hamlet,  which  was  settled  about  1775  and  was 
called  Veedersburg,  grew  slowly.  In  1814  its  present  name 
was  adopted,  but  it  was  not  until  1885  that  it  was  chartered 
as  a  city.  In  1813  it  had  two  carding  and  two  fulling 
machines.  In  1814  the  Star  Hosiery  Mills  of  H.  Pawling 
&  Sons  were  commenced  by  Pawling  and  Jackson,  in  which 
woolen  goods  were  manufactured. 

Wait,  Greene  &  Co.  in  1840  had  leased  a  small  satinet 
factory  at  Hagaman's  mills,  near  Amsterdam,  and  com- 
menced to  make  ingrain  carpets.  Two  years  later  the 
partnership  was  dissolved,  and  W.  R.  Greene  went  to  Am- 
sterdam proper,  and  in  a  small  building  set  up  the  first  car- 
pet looms  in  the  town.  John  Sandford  became  interested 
in  the  place,  a  larger  structure  higher  up  the  creek  was 
bought,  and  the  business  grew  rapidly,  particularly  under 
the  direction  of  Stephen  Sandford,  a  graduate  of  West 
Point  and  son  of  the  original  owner. 

W.  R.  Greene  and  John  McDonnell  commenced  in  1857 
the  manufacture  of  knit  goods  with  two  sets  of  machines. 


246  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

The  same  year  Adam  Kline  and  John  Maxwell  commenced 
making  knit  goods.  Later  Kline  sold  his  interests  to  Max- 
well, and  started  hi  business  with  his  son.  The  Pioneer 
Hosiery  Mills  were  built  in  1868,  and  since  then  the  textile 
industry  in  Amsterdam  has  grown  rapidly.  Its  most  im- 
portant industries  are  carpets,  rugs,  hosiery,  and  knit  goods. 
Its  output,  according  to  the  last  census,  was  $17,000,000. 


WOONSOCKET,   R.I. 

The  falls  of  the  Blackstone  and  its  tributaries,  the  Mill 
and  Peters  Rivers,  in  the  vicinity  of  what  is  now  Woon- 
socket,  offered  an  opportunity  for  an  early  establishment 
of  the  textile  industry,  as  here  the  falls  were  about  thirty 
feet.  In  1810  the  water  rights  were  owned  by  James 
Arnold,  Stephen  Wilcox,  and  Joseph  Arnold.  The  latter 
had  inherited  his  land  from  his  grandfather  Daniel  Arnold, 
one  of  the  early  pioneers. 

On  Oct.  24,  1810,  a  meeting  was  called,  at  which  Ariel 
Abner,  Nathan  Ballou,  Eber  Bartlett,  Job  and  Luke  Jenckes, 
Oliver  Leland,  and  Joseph  Arnold  formed  the  Social  Manu- 
facturing Company,  and  divided  the  stock  into  sixteen  shares 
of  a  thousand  dollars  each,  each  stockholder  taking  two 
shares  of  stock.  Cotton  yarn  and  cloth  were  to  be  made. 
About  four  acres  of  land  were  sold  to  Mr.  Arnold,  and  a 
small  wooden  mill  erected  that  contained  two  thousand 
spindles. 

James  Arnold  built  a  mill  in  1814,  and  here  Dexter  Ballou 
began  to  spin  cotton.  The  building  was  conveyed  Oct.  8, 
1821,  to  Daniel  Lyman,  and  has  since  been  known  as  the 
Lyman  Mill.  Dexter  Ballou  came  to  Woonsocket  in  1817. 
Previously  he  and  his  father  had  been  working  at  Ashton, 
near  what  was  known  as  the  "Sinking  Fund."  The  ma- 
chinery consisted  of  five  cards  made  by  Dexter  Ballou,  and 
three  spinning  jennies  of  eighty-four  spindles  each.  The 
machinery  was  later  removed  to  Lynn,  Mass.  When 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  247 

Daniel  Lyman  bought  Joseph  Arnold's  mill,  he  also  bought 
Ballou's  cotton  machinery. 

Jenckes  sold  out  his  interest  in  1822,  and  built  at  Peters 
River,  at  what  was  Jenckesville,  the  first  stone  mill  in  Woon- 
socket.  In  1827  the  second  wooden  mill  was  built.  Dexter 
Ballou  became  sole  proprietor  Nov.  12, 1841,  and  the  follow- 
ing year  the  Stone  Mill  was  enlarged  and  improved.  It 
was  very  successful  under  the  management  of  Orin  A. 
Ballou,  president,  Henry  Lippitt,  treasurer,  and  Charles 
Nourse,  superintendent.  July  1,  1874,  the  mill  was  burned. 
Woonsocket  became  a  city  in  1888,  and  to-day  its  principal 
textile  products  are  worsted  and  woolen  yarns,  woolen  and 
cotton  goods,  and  cotton  yarn  and  silk.  Its  population 
is  about  thirty-eight  thousand,  and  its  output,  according  to 
the  last  census,  was  $20,000,000. 


CONCLUSION 

The  establishment  of  the  textile  industry  in  the  textile 
centres  of  America  marks  the  end  of  this  brief  survey  of  the 
methods  by  which  man  has  clothed  himself.  The  survey 
has  dealt  largely  with  the  era  from  1733,  when  Kay  invented 
the  fly  shuttle,  to  about  the  death  of  Samuel  Slater  a  little 
over  a  century  later,  because  during  this  period  the  industry 
has  shown  its  greatest  development,  and  this  century  marks 
the  transition  of  the  industry  from  a  handicraft  in  the  home 
to  a  power  production  in  the  factory. 

This  transition  has  had  a  far-reaching  effect  on  social 
conditions  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  It  has  changed 
the  face  of  Western  England  from  an  agricultural  section 
to  a  great  manufacturing  centre,  whose  mills  and  factories 
have  brought  about  a  segregation  of  population  in  industrial 
centres,  and  has  created  the  great  middle  class  in  England. 
It  has  given  labor  in  England  a  dignity  that  it  never 
possessed,  and  has  placed  many  of  the  great  captains  of  in- 
dustry on  a  plane  of  equality  with  the  nobility.  Many  of 


248  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

the  Lancaster  mill  owners  who  have  played  such  a  potent 
part  in  the  politics  of  Great  Britain  for  the  last  hundred 
years  have  risen  from  the  ranks  of  the  workers  or  have  been 
descendants  of  workers  in  the  textile  mills. 

The  industry  has  been  the  leaven  which  has  expanded 
the  intellectual  vision  of  the  industrial  worker  to  a  point 
that  has  made  him  a  factor  in  the  politics  of  his  nation  and 
a  coming  power  in  the  great  movement  for  the  betterment 
of  the  world;  for  the  English  textile  worker  has  learned  to 
sympathize  with  the  fellow-worker  of  another  nation  as 
well  as  with  workers  in  other  classes  of  industry. 

The  transformation  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  has  been 
quite  as  interesting,  though  perhaps  along  somewhat  different 
lines.  It  was  during  the  colonial  era  and  up  to  the  begin- 
ning of  the  nineteenth  century  a  handicraft  in  the  home, 
as  it  was  in  England  and  on  the  Continent, — a  handicraft 
that  was  limited  in  output  and  impotent  in  its  influence 
on  the  social  life  of  its  time. 

The  introduction  of  machinery  caused  the  harnessing 
of  the  rocky  streams  of  New  England  to  spinning  frames 
and  looms,  and  stimulated  the  inventive  genius  of  the 
Yankee.  The  concomitant  adoption  of  Arkwright's  ma- 
chinery and  Lowell's  and  Gilmore's  perfected  looms  in 
American  mills  caused  an  extension  of  the  industry  not 
only  over  the  rocky  face  of  New  England,  but  even  into 
the  cotton-growing  fields  of  the  South  and  along  many  of 
the  less  rugged  streams  of  the  Middle  Atlantic  States. 

The  industry  found  New  England  a  great  maritime 
centre,  sending  its  ships  for  trade  to  the  uttermost  parts 
of  the  earth.  It  stimulated  and  developed  the  great  ship- 
ping interests  during  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century; 
for  its  cotton  goods  found  a  ready  market  in  the  East,  and 
at  that  time  so  much  greater  were  the  returns  from  the  capi- 
tal invested  in  the  textile  mills  of  New  England  that  money 
was  diverted  from  the  shipping  interests  into  mills,  and 
during  the  end  of  the  last  century  to  the  more  profitable  in- 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  249 

vestments  in  transportation  and  in  the  fast-growing  West. 
To-day  the  shipping  has  disappeared  and  the  textile  industry 
has  dotted  the  face  of  New  England  with  the  great  mill 
centres,  which  are  beehives  of  production,  whirring  with 
millions  of  spindles,  clattering  with  thousands  of  looms, 
and  rumbling  with  thousands  upon  thousands  of  pulleys 
and  shaftings,  turning  out  millions  of  dollars'  worth  of 
fabrics  of  every  description. 

The  growth  in  America  has  indeed  been  phenomenal, 
for  prior  to  1787  there  were  few  spindles  under  one  roof, 
and  very  few  in  the  country  as  a  whole.  With  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Pennsylvania  Society  for  the  Encourage- 
ment of  Useful  Arts  and  the  Beverly  Cotton  Manufactory, 
the  two  earliest  cotton  manufactories,  there  were  not  in  all 
in  1788  more  than  860  spindles  in  America.  According  to 
the  1910  census  the  number  of  spindles  is  now  33,998,648, 
of  which  28,178,862  were  employed  in  the  cotton  industry, 
2,156,849  in  the  woolen  industry,  and  1,752,806  in  the 
worsted,  and  1,767,962  in  silk,  and  on  flax,  hemp,  jute,  and 
allied  fibres  142,169.  The  census  ranks  the  textile  industry 
on  the  basis  of  the  value  of  output  second  only  to  that  of 
food  products;  while,  as  to  the  number  of  employees,  it 
gives  it  the  first  place;  as  to  the  number  of  establish- 
ments, fourth  place;  and  as  to  capital,  salaries,  and  wages, 
second  place. 

The  total  capital  invested  in  the  textile  industry  in  this 
country  to-day  is  $1,343,324,605.  There  are  1,154  mills 
devoted  to  cotton,  1,213  to  wool,  1,079  to  knit  goods,  and 
624  to  silk.  739,239  wage-earners  are  engaged  in  the  indus- 
try, who  draw  $249,357,277.  Its  salaried  officials  and  clerks 
number  24,116.  The  cost  of  the  material  used  is  $745,783,- 
168,  and  the  value  of  the  product  is  $1,215,036,792. 

Hardly  less  marvellous  than  the  growth  of  the  industry 
has  been  the  increased  production  of  the  individual  spinners 
and  weavers.  As  Jonathan  Thayer  Lincoln  well  says,  in 
the  admirable  little  monograph  "The  Factory,"  of  the  con- 


250  THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 

dition  of  the  industry  after  the  establishment  of  the  factory 
system,  "The  amount  of  labor  performed  in  a  single  fac- 
tory was  as  great  as  that  which  formerly  gave  occupation 
to  the  inhabitants  of  an  entire  district."  He  says  that 
while  originally  a  good  hand  loom  weaver  could  produce  two 
pieces  of  shirting  each  week,  by  1823  a  power  loom  weaver 
was  able  to  produce  seven  such  pieces  in  the  same  time,  while 
a  factory  of  two  hundred  looms  operated  by  one  hundred 
persons  could,  it  is  estimated,  weave  seven  hundred  pieces 
a  week.  Under  the  old  handicraft  system  at  least  875  looms 
would  have  been  required  to  weave  the  same  amount  of 
cloth.  He  estimates  that  the  work  done  in  a  steam  factory 
containing  two  hundred  looms  would,  if  performed  by  hand, 
give  employment  and  support  to  a  population  of  two  thou- 
sand persons,  and  that  a  modern  weave-room,  containing 
two  hundred  power  looms  operated  by  twenty-five  weavers, 
is  equivalent  to  the  labor  of  a  community  of  sixty  thousand 
craftsmen,  their  wives  and  children.  So  that  to  produce 
by  hand  the  work  now  turned  out  by  the  Fall  River  factories 
alone  would  require  a  population  of  thirty  million. 

A  further  estimate  by  John  S.  Lawrence  shows  that  the 
productiveness  of  the  individual  weaver  and  spinner  as 
compared  with  the  old  handicraft  workman  has  been  in- 
creased over  a  thousand  times,  and,  as  the  consumption 
continues  to  increase  in  equal  ratio,  we  must  in  the  future 
either  increase  the  production  of  labor  and  machinery  or 
employ  a  greater  per  cent,  of  the  population. 

The  social  changes  brought  about  by  the  textile  industry 
in  New  England  have  been  almost  as  marked  as  those  in 
England.  At  first  the  mills  were  made  up  almost  wholly  of 
the  sons  and  daughters  of  native-born  Americans,  often 
neighbors  and  friends  and  almost  always  acquaintances  of 
the  proprietor.  As  the  industry  grew,  calling  for  more  help, 
Irish  and  French-Canadians  came  in,  driving  out  with  their 
cheaper  labor  the  native-born,  and  this  together  with  the 
offering  of  the  mill  stock  on  a  wider  scale  resulted  in  a  dis- 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES  251 

continuance  of  this  close  working  relationship  between 
employee  and  employer,  until  it  was  not  long  before  the 
employers,  or  the  stockholders,  were  entire  strangers  to  the 
body  of  employees.  The  French -Canadians  in  turn  were 
driven  out  by  the  hordes  of  emigrants  from  Russia,  Poland, 
Bohemia,  and  the  southern  countries  of  Europe, — a  class 
unfamiliar  with  American  ideas  or  American  standards  of 
living.  This  last  class  of  help  has  done  a  great  deal  to 
change  the  civic  conditions  of  the  factory  towns  and  to  lower 
the  standard  of  living.  Hours  and  conditions  of  work  are, 
on  the  other  hand,  constantly  improving.  As  more  and 
more  of  the  mill  owners  are  showing  a  regard  for  their  em- 
ployees, outside  as  well  as  inside  their  factories,  the  general 
conditions  in  the  mill  towns  are  improving,  and  the  day  is 
rapidly  approaching  when  the  criticisms  of  the  present 
mill  town  conditions  will  not  apply. 

The  textile  industry  is  so  highly  competitive  and  the 
development  of  machinery  has  produced  such  excellent 
work  with  but  little  skill  that  the  textile  mills  of  New  Eng- 
land have  become  great  training  schools  in  industry  for  the 
most  recently  arrived  immigrants  from  the  less  resourceful 
nations  of  the  whole  world;  while  in  the  South  the  indus- 
try has  lifted  to  a  plane  of  greater  comfort  and  efficiency  the 
natives  who  even  before  the  war  were  completely  poverty- 
stricken.  Not  only  have  the  mills  trained  the  employees 
and  their  children  so  that  former  textile  employees  now 
form  the  part  of  our  great  middle  class  which  operate  our 
industries  everywhere,  but  they  have  also  furnished  the 
means  by  which  they  and  their  children  have  been  fed, 
clothed,  and  educated. 

The  Statute  Books  of  many  of  the  more  advanced  States, 
such  as  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  and  Pennsylvania, 
already  contain  admirable  laws  aimed  to  remove  the  causes 
of  friction  between  the  employees  and  the  mill  owners  and 
the  public.  Many  mills  are  taking  steps  not  only  to  safe- 
guard their  employees  while  at  work,  but  to  promote  their 


THE  STORY  OF  TEXTILES 


happiness  and  to  better  their  living  conditions.  And,  as 
soon  as  a  community  is  able  to  feed  and  clothe  its  children 
and  endure  taxation  for  education,  the  employment  of 
children  will  cease.  Many  who  have  for  hire,  either  capital 
or  labor,  are  beginning  to  realize  that  theirs  is  a  trust  given 
them  temporarily,  not  alone  for  their  own  benefit,  but  for 
the  interests  of  the  community;  and  employers  and  em- 
ployees who  act  in  accord  with  this  realization  are  the 
effective  forces  in  making  the  future  of  the  country  better 
for  all. 


Reproduction  of  the  original  engraved  copperplate 
of  Samuel  Wetherill,  of  Philadelphia,  the  first  manu- 
facturer of  velverets,  jeans,  fustians,  and  other  cloths 
in  America,  used  by  him  as  early  as  1782  to  print  cards 
and  labels  for  his  manufacture. 


INDEX 


Abbott,  J.  G.,  stockholder,  219. 

Acme  Spinning  Company,  first  to 
use  electric  power,  69. 

Acushnet  Mills,  New  Bedford,  239. 

Adair,  James,  113. 

Addison  and  Stevens,  of  New  York, 
patent  a  ring  spinner,  109. 

Agriculture,  its  relation  to  the 
English  textile  industry,  62, 
64-65. 

Alabama,  consumption  of  cotton, 
43. 

Alcohol,  used  for  fuel,  91. 

Alexander,  the  Great,  brings  knowl- 
edge of  silk-making  to  Europe, 
46. 

Alexander,  Joseph,  weaves  cor- 
duroy at  Providence,  162,  230. 

Algonquin  Indians,  weaving  by,  22. 

Alizarine,  produced  artificially,  118. 

Allen,  John,  establishes  cotton 
mill  at  Centreville,  R.I.,  178. 

Almy,  Brown  and  Slater,  Providence, 
partnership  formed,  171;  con- 
struct Arkwright  machinery,  172; 
seek  government  aid,  173;  use 
cotton  warp,  173;  build  "Old 
Slater  Mill"  for  spinning,  174; 
payment  and  discipline  of  em- 
ployees, 174;  markets  for  yarn, 
174-175,  176;  buy  Centreville 
cotton  mill,  178. 

American  colonies,  silk  industry 
in,  51-52. 

American  Linen  Company,  Fall 
River,  229. 

American  Manufactory,  Philadel- 
phia, earliest  cotton  and  woolen 
manufactory  in  America,  215. 

American  Print  Works,  Fall  River, 
largest  in  America,  228. 

American  Printing  Company,  Fall 
River,  228. 


American  Woolen  Company,  221. 

Ammianus  Marcellinus,  cited,  47. 

Amoskeag  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany, incorporated,  241;  lays 
out  Manchester,  241;  wages  of 
employees,  241;  growth  of  the 
industry,  241. 

Amsterdam,  N.  Y.,  a  textile  centre, 
210;  value  of  product,  211;  his- 
tory of,  245-246;  hosiery  mills, 
245,  246;  carpet  mills,  245;  knit 
goods,  245;  value  of  output, 
246. 

Aniline  dyes,  discovery  and  nature 
of,  118. 

Anthony,  Daniel,  manufactures 
cotton  in  Rhode  Island,  161,  230. 

Anthony,  Richard,  makes  textile 
machines,  161. 

Appleton,  Nathan,  meets  Lowell 
in  Edinburgh,  193;  sells  Wal- 
tham  goods,  197;  names  Lowell, 
Mass.,  205;  stockholder  of  Essex 
Company,  220,  221;  president 
of  the  Stark  Mill,  241. 

Appleton  Company,  established, 
209. 

Apprentice  system,  65-66;  tried 
by  Slater,  174. 

Argentine  Republic,  production 
of  wool  in  1909,  31. 

Aristotle,  cited,  46. 

Arkwright,  Richard,  the  "father  of 
the  factory  system,"  68,  69,  73; 
erects  first  practical  cotton  mill  in 
the  world,  68;  sketch  of,  78-83; 
Carlyle's  description  of,  79; 
early  life,  79-80;  his  spinning 
frame  and  other  inventions, 
80-81;  his  machines  destroyed, 
82;  infringement  of  his  patents, 
82;  knighted,  83;  his  machines 
first  used  in  America,  173,  244. 


254 


INDEX 


Arnold,  Asa,  invents  Compound 
Gear,  108. 

Arnold,  James,  builds  mill  at 
Woonsocket,  246. 

Arnold,  Joseph,  starts  Woonsocket 
cotton  industry,  246. 

Arrian,  mentions  cotton,  36. 

Atlantic  Cotton  Mills,  Lawrence, 
Ml. 

Aurelian,  Emperor,  calls  silk  ex- 
travagant, 47. 

Australia,  production  of  wool  in 
1909,  31. 

Bailey,  John,  makes  textile  ma- 
chines, 161. 

Baldwin  III.,  Count,  establishes 
first  weavers  at  Ghent,  22. 

Ballou,  Dexter,  constructs  textile 
machines  at  Woonsocket,  246- 
247. 

Baltimore,  Md.,  manufacturers  pe- 
tition for  duty  on  cotton,  188; 
cotton  manufactory  established, 
188-189. 

Bancroft,  Edward,  perfects  dyeing 
machinery,  118. 

Barbadoes,  exchanges  cotton  and 
rum  for  slaves,  127. 

Barr,  Robert  and  Alexander,  re- 
ceive aid  from  Massachusetts  for 
textile  machinery,  151,  152,  153; 
"The  State  Models,"  153. 

Barrett,  Charles,  proprietor  of  New 
Ipswich  Mill,  179. 

Bartlett,  Edmund,  founder  of  the 
Essex  Company,  220. 

Basket  weaving,  in  ancient  times, 
14,  15-16;  at  Wellfleet,  22. 

Basyer,  produces  artificial  indigo, 
118. 

Batchelder,  Samuel,  invents  the 
stop-motion,  109;  quoted,  244. 

Bay  State  Mills,  Lawrence,  221. 

Bayeux  tapestry,  26. 

Beaumont,  James,  cited,  235. 

Bell,  John,  invents  power  loom, 
106. 

Bell,  Thomas,  discovers  plate  and 
cylinder  printing,  120. 

Belts,  leather,  first  used  at  Lowell, 
110. 


Bennett,  Thomas,  tries  to  start 
cotton  mill  in  Georgia,  237; 
decides  to  try  New  Bedford, 
237;  superintendent  of  the  Wam- 
sutta  Mills,  238;  success  of  his 
enterprise,  238-239. 

Berthollet,  Claude  Louis,  his  ex- 
periments in  bleaching  cloth, 
114;  experiments  in  dyeing,  117. 

Beverly,  Mass.,  early  cotton  mill, 
179. 

Beverly  Cotton  Manufactory,  may 
have  been  first  cotton  mill  in 
America,  149,  150;  instigated 
by  the  Bridgewater  experiments, 
153-154;  incorporated,  155;  raw 
cotton  imported,  154;  secures 
a  trade -mark,  155;  the  mill 
erected,  155;  described,  156;  ex- 
penditures, 156-157;  legislative 
grant,  157;  visited  by  Washing- 
ton, 157-158;  first  textile  adver- 
tising, 159;  Beverly  corduroys, 
159;  the  industry  discontinued, 
159. 

Bible,  mentions  textile  art,  17; 
flax,  26;  cotton,  36. 

Billston,  James,  earliest  reference 
to  English  cotton  manufacture, 
37. 

Bishop,  John  Leander,  his  "His- 
tory of  Manufactures,"  cited, 
131. 

Blackman,  Charles,  early  tailor, 
212. 

Bleaching,  history  of,  111-115; 
bleaching  with  milk,  112;  in  the 
sun,  113,  176,  208;  laws  against 
stealing  of  linen,  113;  premium 
offered  in  Scotland,  113;  Home's 
sulphuric  acid  process,  113-114; 
the  chlorine  process,  114-115; 
method  of  at  Slater's  mills,  176. 

Block  printing,  process  of,  119-120, 
232.  See  also  Printing. 

Blodgett,  Samuel,  builds  canal  at 
Derryfield,  239;  tries  to  develop 
the  water  power  there,  239; 
Manchester  named  in  honor  of 
him,  239-240. 

Board,  his  experiments  in  dyeing, 
117. 


INDEX 


255 


Bombyx,  46,  47. 

Bonvoise,  Anthony,  introduces  the 
distaff  into  England,  71. 

Boott,  Kirk,  secures  water  priv- 
ileges for  Lowell  mills,  201; 
song  written  about  him,  201; 
his  life  and  personality,  202; 
attempts  upon  his  life,  202; 
treasurer  of  the  Merrimac  Com- 
pany, 203,  204;  secures  en- 
gravers in  England,  205. 

Boott  Company,  established,  209. 

Borden,  Holder,  228. 

Borden,  William,  receives  bounty 
on  duck,  133. 

Boston,  Linen  Manufactory  House 
established,  134;  Linen  Men's 
House,  134;  spinning  craze, 
135-137;  Manufactory  House 
on  Tremont  Street  erected,  137; 
Society  for  Promoting  Industry 
and  Frugality  raise  money  for 
spinning,  136;  young  women 
spin  on  the  Common,  136;  Frog 
Lane,  now  Boylston  Street,  160; 
Holyoke,  now  Tremont  Street, 
160. 

Boston  Manufacturing  Company. 
See  The  Waltham  Company. 

Boston  Sail  Cloth  Factory,  history 
of,  159-160;  described  by  Wash- 
ington, 160. 

Boulton,  Mathew,  partner  of  James 
Watt,  100. 

Bourne,  E.  A.,  221. 

Bow,  Eng.,  early  dye  works  there, 
117. 

Bowditch,  William,  comments  on 
the  Waltham  speeder,  195. 

Bowdoin,  Mr.,  examines  textile 
machinery,  151. 

Bowers,  Mrs.  Isaac,  sells  Waltham 
goods  on  Cornhill  Street,  197. 

Branch,  Peter,  his  inventory  men- 
tions home-made  cloth,  123. 

Brazil,  production  of  cotton,  35; 
natives  use  cotton  in  1519,  40. 

Brewster,  Gilbert,  invents  the 
Eclipse  Speeder,  109. 

Bridgewater,  Mass.,  early  textile 
machines  made  there,  151-153, 
161. 


Brooks,  Daniel,  erects  cotton  mill, 
179. 

Broome,  Jacob,  his  cotton  mill 
190. 

Brown,  Jeremiah,  commission  mer- 
chant, 176. 

Brown,  John,  directs  Boston  spin- 
ning school,  137;  refuses  to  be 
dispossessed,  137. 

Brown,  Moses,  of  Beverly,  founder 
of  the  Beverly  Cotton  Manu- 
factory, 155. 

Brown,  Moses,  of  Providence,  seeks 
the  co-operation  of  the  Beverly 
proprietors,  159,  173;  buys  tex- 
tile machinery,  162;  invites 
Slater  to  Providence,  170; 
quoted,  on  Slater's  cotton  warp, 
173. 

Brown,  Obadiah,  buys  cotton  mill 
at  Centreville,  178. 

Brown,  Smith,  buys  Fullem's  stock- 
ing loom,  162;  forms  partnership 
with  Samuel  Slater,  171. 

Buckram,  manufactured  in  1722, 
132. 

Bush,  Thomas,  180. 

Button,  John,  makes  children's 
hose,  218. 

Byfield,  Newburyport  Woolen 
Manufactory  established,  165- 
166. 

Cabot,  Andrew,  155. 

Cabot,  Deborah,  155. 

Cabot,  George,  letter  to  Alexander 
Hamilton  quoted,  149, 154, 156; 
one  of  the  founders  of  the  Bev- 
erly Manufactory,  155;  enter- 
tains Washington,  157-158. 

Cabot,  Henry,  anecdote  of  Wash- 
ington's visit,  157. 

Cabot,  John,  purchases  site  of 
Beverly  Manufactory,  155. 

Calico,  brought  from  India,  36,  38; 
woven  by  Arkwright,  81;  print- 
ing of,  119;  first  in  America 
printed  by  John  Hewson,  140, 
215;  printing  in  Rhode  Island, 
162;  printed  at  Lowell,  205,  206. 

Cam,  John,  stocking  weaver, 
212. 


256 


INDEX 


Cap  Spinner.  See  Danforth, 
Charles. 

Capital,  combination  of,  cause  of 
modern  factory  system,  60, 66, 67. 

Carding  machine,  Kay's,  74; 
Paul's,  77;  Crompton's,  86; 
constructed  by  Earl,  172;  man- 
ufactured at  Philadelphia, 
215-216;  constructed  by  John 
Daniel,  244. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  his  essay  on 
Chartism  cited,  69;  quoted,  79. 

Caroline,  Queen  of  England,  has 
dress  of  Georgia  silk,  52. 

Carpenter,  Ezekiel,  his  fulling  mill 
atPawtucket,  172, 173. 

Carpet,  industry  in  Philadelphia, 
216-217,  218;  first  manufact- 
urer of,  216;  Turkish  and  Ax- 
minster,  216-217;  floor  carpets 
and  oil  cloths,  217;  Brussels, 
217;  industry  in  Amsterdam, 
N.Y.,  245,  246. 

Cartwright,  Edmund,  69,  73; 
sketch  of,  88-92;  his  power 
loom,  88-90,  91;  early  life  and 
education,  90-91;  his  person- 
ality, 91;  his  other  inventions, 
91-92;  his  machines  set  on  fire, 
92. 

Cecil,  Sir  William,  49. 

Cecil  Manufacturing  Company, 
Elkton,  Md.,  its  history,  189. 

Centreville,  R.I.,  second  cotton 
mill  in  Rhode  Island,  178;  ma- 
chines copied  from  Slater's,  178. 

Chambers's  "Book  of  Days," 
quoted,  100. 

Champlain,  Samuel  de,  says  Indi- 
ans wear  cotton,  41. 

Chapman,  Isaac,  155. 

Chelmsford,  original  name  of  Low- 
ell, 201. 

Cheney  Brothers,  their  silk  in- 
dustry, 57. 

Chevreul,  Michael  Eugene,  experi- 
ments in  dyeing,  117. 

Chew,  his  "History  of  the  King- 
dom of  Cotton,"  etc.,  cited,  146. 

Children,  in  cotton  mills,  69,  78, 
81,  174,  199,  200,  207-208,  244, 
252. 


China,  method  of  hand  weaving, 
21;  source  of  cotton  industry, 
35;  early  home  of  silk  industry, 
45. 

Chlorine,  used  in  bleaching,  114- 
115. 

City  Manufacturers,  New  Bedford 
and,  239. 

Clark,  Thomas  M.,  secures  water 
privileges  for  Lowell  mills,  201. 

Clarke,  Mr.,  examines  textile  ma- 
chinery, 151. 

Clay,  Henry,  56. 

Clayton,  Messrs.,  establish  first 
printing  plant  in  Lancashire, 
119. 

Clegg,  Edward,  215. 

Cochineal,  use  of,  117. 

Colbert,  Jean  Baptiste,  his  interest 
in  French  silk  industry,  49; 
published  instructions  in  dyeing, 
117. 

Colchester,  Conn.,  duck  manu- 
facture, 160-161. 

Colchester,  Eng.,  early  woolen  mill 
there,  68,  74. 

Colonial  Assembly  offers  bounties 
for  raw  silk,  51. 

Colt,  Christopher,  his  silk  indus- 
tries, 56,  236. 

Colt,  Peter,  163;  superintendent 
of  the  Paterson  mills,  235. 

Columbus,  Christopher,  first  men- 
tions cotton  in  America,  39. 

Commission  merchants,  first  ones, 
175,  176. 

Compound  Gear,  invented  by  Asa 
Arnold,  108;  English  patents 
stolen,  108. 

Conestoga  Print  Works,  218. 

Confraville,  perfects  dyeing  ma- 
chinery, 118. 

Connecticut,  its  silk  industry  es- 
tablished, 52-55;  start  of  the 
cotton  industry  in,  181-182. 

Connecticut,  General  Assembly, 
orders  the  raising  of  hemp  and 
flax,  125;  encourages  the  textile 
industry,  163,  165. 

Connecticut  Courant,  quoted,  164, 
165. 

Connecticut  Journal,  quoted,  235. 


INDEX 


257 


Connecticut  Silk  Manufacturing 
Company,  56. 

Constantinople,  its  silk  industry, 
47-48. 

Corduroy,  manufacture  of  at- 
tempted in  Rhode  Island,  162. 

Cornbury,  Lord,  quoted,  132. 

Cornish,  John,  establishes  the  first 
worsted  mill,  130. 

Cortez,  Hernando,  brings  cottons 
from  Mexico,  40HU;  brings  silk- 
worms to  Mexico,  51. 

Corticelli  silk,  57. 

Cos,  Island  of,  46,  47. 

Cotton,  known  to  the  Egyptians, 
17;  used  by  Incas,  19;  raised 
and  woven  by  Malays,  21 ;  crop 
in  1910,  34;  derivation  of  name, 
34;  history  of,  35-43;  plant, 
34,  35;  Sea  Island  cotton,  35, 
145;  upland  cotton,  35;  by- 
products of,  35;  cotton  produc- 
ing countries  of  the  world,  35; 
known  in  England  at  an  early 
date,  37;  exported  from  Eng- 
land, 38;  mentioned  by  Colum- 
bus, 39;  first  mention  of  in 
United  States,  41;  great  stimu- 
lus given  by  American  Revolu- 
tion, 41;  first  manufactory  of 
in  America  at  Rowley,  42;  sta- 
tistics of  cotton  industry,  42-43; 
first  cotton  mills,  68;  first  use 
of  water  power,  68;  whole  opera- 
tion of  spinning  first  carried  on 
in  one  mill,  68,  81;  separated 
from  the  seed  by  hand,  101,  208; 
invention  of  the  cotton  gin, 
101-105;  American  colonists 
exchange  slaves  for  West  Indian 
cotton,  123,  127;  "Desire"  and 
"Trial"  bring  cotton  to  New 
England,  123;  Massachusetts 
General  Court  encourages  its 
manufacture,  124;  finer  grades 
brought  from  England,  138- 
139;  statistics  of  in  England, 
142-143;  its  cultivation  in  the 
Southern  States,  143-144,  146, 
225;  origin  and  spread  of  Sea 
Island  cotton,  145-147;  ex- 
ported to  England,  146-147; 


laid  by  hand,  173;  thread  first 
made  in  America,  175;  manu- 
facture of  in  the  South,  187-191; 
first  cloth  made  entirely  by 
power,  194;  tariff  on,  55,'  197, 
217,  232.  See  Spinning,  Weav- 
ing. 

Cotton  gin,  invented  by  Eli  Whit- 
ney, 101-105;  increases  cotton 
production,  146. 

Coutrai,  Belgium,  produces  best 
prepared  flax,  27. 

Coxal  cloth,  71. 

Coxe,  Tench,  his  attempt  to  secure 
English  textile  machines,  141- 
142;  encourages  cotton  raising 
in  the  South,  143-144,  146; 
organizes  The  Pennsylvania  So- 
ciety for  the  Encouragement  of 
Manufactures,  148. 

Crabbe,  George,  quoted,  91. 

Cranch,  Richard,  examines  textile 
machinery,  151-152. 

Crank,  or  Scotch,  loom.    See  Loom. 

Crocker,  Samuel,  manufactures 
cotton  at  Taunton,  180. 

Cromford,  mills  there  first  to  have 
whole  process  of  cotton  spinning, 
68,  81. 

Crommelin,  Louis,  27. 

Crompton,  Samuel,  73;  sketch  of, 
83-88;  his  "mule,"  83,  84-86; 
hides  his  machine,  85;  makes 
his  inventions  public,  86;  in- 
vents carding  machine,  86; 
receives  grant  from  Parliament, 
87;  his  personality,  87-88;  his 
mule  first  used  in  America, 
244. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  grants  charter  to 
hosiery  trade,  93;  prohibits  ex- 
port of  wool  from  England,  128- 
129. 

Cumberland,  R.I.,  cotton  mill 
there,  179. 

Cylinder  card  machine,  used  in 
"Arkwright's  mill,  68. 

Dambourney,  perfects  dyeing  ma- 
chinery, 118. 

Dana,  Dr.  Samuel  L.,  205. 
Dandy  loom.     See  Loom. 


258 


INDEX 


Danforth,  Charles,  invents  the 
Cap  Spinner,  108;  his  English 
patents  stolen,  108-109. 

Danforth,  George,  invents  the 
Taunton  Speeder,  109;  his 
speeder  used  in  Rhode  Island, 
199. 

Daniel,  John,  constructs  cotton 
machinery,  244. 

Daughters  of  Liberty,  Providence, 
R.I.,  adopt  spinning,  138,  230. 

Davenport,  James,  receives  first 
American  patent  on  textile  ma- 
chinery, 108;  establishes  the 
Globe'Mills,  108. 

Davol,  William  C.,  smuggles  Eng- 
lish mules  to  America,  228-229; 
installs  them  in  Fall  River,  229. 

DeFoe,  Daniel,  quoted,  65. 

Delaware,  its  silk  industry,  53. 

Depoully,  develops  the  merceriz- 
ing process,  121. 

Derby,  Eng.,  silk  mill  erected, 
1719,  51;  hosiery  mills  there,  95. 

Derwent  River,  supplies  power  for 
cotton  mills,  68,81. 

Design,  Art  of,  among  Incas,  19; 
among  hand  weavers  of  China 
and  India,  21-22. 

"Desire,"  ship,  brings  cotton  to 
Salem,  123. 

Devonshire  kerseys,  71. 

Dexter,  Andrew,  manufactures  cot- 
ton in  Rhode  Island,  161,  230; 
sells  machines  to  Moses  Brown, 
162,  172. 

Diaper,  origin  of  word,  26. 

Dickens,  Charles,  describes  Lowell 
mills,  207-208. 

Dickson,  David,  began  cotton  man- 
ufacture in  New  York,  243-244; 
his  mill  described,  244;  em- 
ployees and  wages,  244;  uses 
Arkwright  machinery,  244 ; 
water  power  of  his  mill,  244; 
enterprise  a  failure,  244. 

Dimity,  37;  made  by  American 
colonists,  126. 

Dionysius,  cited,  47. 

Distaff,  used  in  remotest  times,  71 ; 
description  of,  71. 

Distaff  side,  73. 


Dorsey,  John,  makes  carpets  and 
oil  cloths,  217. 

Double  Speeder,  invented  at  Wal- 
tham,  195. 

Draper,  George  &  Sons,  Hopedale, 
Mass.,  instigate  the  invention 
of  the  Northrop  loom,  110-111. 

Draper  Company,  Hopedale,  Mass., 
110. 

Drebels,  Cornelis  van,  discovers 
method  of  dyeing  with  cochineal, 
117. 

Dressing  machine,  constructed  at 
Waltham,  195;  rollers  made 
from  soaps  tone,  195. 

Drop-box,  invented  by  Robert 
Kay,  76. 

Duck,  woven  on  eight  looms  in 
1724,  132;  bounty  on  granted, 
133;  manufactured  in  Boston, 
160;  other  attempts,  160-161. 

Dufay,  experiments  in  dyeing,  117. 

Durfee,  Joseph,  Col.,  organizes  the 
Globe  Mill,  222,  223;  served  in 
the  Revolution,  223;  his  mills 
described,  223;  his  undertaking 
a  failure,  224;  dies  poor,  224. 

Dutch  boy,  improved  by  Kay, 
74. 

Dyeing,  evidences  of  in  earliest 
times,  16-18;  among  Incas  of 
Peru,  19;  its  history,  116-119; 
knowledge  of  brought  to  Europe 
from  the  Orient,  116;  cultiva- 
tion of  dye  plants,  117;  dis- 
covery of  cochineal  dyeing,  117; 
discovery  of  aniline  dyes,  118; 
perfection  of  dyeing  machinery, 
118;  process  of,  118-119. 

Dyer,  Mr.,  of  Manchester,  Eng., 
patents  the  Taunton  speeder, 
109. 

Dyers'  Company  of  London,  in- 
corporated, 117. 

Earl,  Pliny,  makes  cards  for  Slater's 
mill,  172. 

East  Greenwich,  Conn.,  stocking 
manufacture,  162;  calico  print- 
ing, 162,  231,  232. 

East  India  Company,  controversy 
over  calico,  38-39. 


INDEX 


259 


Eau  de  Javel,  used  in  bleaching, 
114. 

Eclipse  Speeder,  invented  by  Gil- 
bert Brewster,  109;  used  in  Eng- 
land, 109. 

Edict  of  Nantes,  revocation  of, 
gives  impetus  to  textile  indus- 
tries of  Ireland  and  England, 
27,  39,  49,  50. 

Edward  III.  restricts  sheep  rais- 
ing, 33;  restricts  merchants  to 
one  line,  48;  incorporates  the 
Dyers'  Company,  117. 

Edward  VI.,  his  silk  stockings,  50. 

Egypt,  production  of  cotton,  17,  35. 

Electricity,  in  textile  mills,  69. 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  imports  Flemish 
weavers,  23;  permits  free  expor- 
tation of  wool,  33;  wears  silk 
stockings,  50,  94;  refuses  patents 
to  Wm.  Lee,  93. 

Employees,  early  relation  with 
employer,  65,  69;  in  Slater's 
mills,  174;  care  of  at  Waltham, 
196;  treatment  of  under  the 
Waltham  and  Rhode  Island 
systems,  199-200;  care  of  at 
Lowell,  206-208;  Fall  River 
hours  of  work  and  wages,  223, 
226,  227;  plan  for  at  Paterson, 
234;  increased  production  of  the 
individual,  249-250;  foreigners 
supplant  the  native-born,  250- 
251;  lower  standards  of  living, 
251;  improved  condition  of 
labor,  251. 

Employer.     See  Employees. 

England,  progress  of  woolen  in- 
dustry, 23,  32-34;  spinning 
schools,  27;  a  wool-producing 
country,  30;  immigrations  of 
Flemish  weavers,  33;  sheep 
raising  restricted,  33;  early  ref- 
erences to  its  cotton  manu- 
facture, 37;  trade  in  cotton, 
38;  silk  industry  in,  49-51;  its 
textile  industry  in  relation  to 
agriculture,  62,  64-65;  middle 
class  formed,  70;  export  of 
wool  prohibited,  128-129;  ex- 
port of  wool  from  the  colonies 
prohibited,  130;  imports 


American  cotton,  146-147;  ad- 
vantages for  cotton  industry, 
193;  economic  and  social  as- 
pects of  the  textile  industry, 
247-248. 

English  Equation  Box,  108. 

Essex  Company,  The,  Lawrence, 
220-221. 

Essex  Gazette,  quoted,  128. 

Estes,  Edward,  227. 

Europe,  production  of  wool  in  1909, 
31. 

Evans,  Oliver,  manufactures 
cards,  215. 

Exeter,  N.H.,  duck  manufacture, 
161. 

Factory  System,  59-70;  English 
guilds  forerunners  of  modern 
factory  system,  59;  skill,  capital, 
and  machinery  causes  of  system, 
60;  Roman  household  embryo 
factory,  60;  trace  of  in  mediae- 
val Italy,  60;  John  Winch- 
combe's  factory  first  in  England, 
61;  English  farm  first  seat  of 
textile  industry,  62;  its  begin- 
ning appears  in  separation  of 
processes,  62;  artisans  concen- 
trate in  hamlets,  65;  relations 
of  employer  and  employee,  65- 
68,  251;  developed  by  era  of  in- 
ventions, 68;  effect  upon  English 
society,  69-70. 

Fall  River,  leads  in  cotton  pro- 
duction, 210,  222,  229;  value  of 
production,  211;  growth  since 
1800,  222;  development  due  to 
climate  and  water  power,  222; 
the  Globe  Mill,  222-224;  other 
mills  started,  224-225,  227-229; 
cotton  brought  from  the  South, 
225;  market  for  and  character 
of  cotton  products,  227;  first 
print  works  there,  228;  Ameri- 
can Print  Works,  largest  in 
America,  228;  steam  first  used, 
228;  first  to  use  self-acting 
mules,  228. 

Fall  River  Iron  Works,  228. 

Fall  River  Manufactory,  224-225; 
power  looms  used,  226;  hours 


260 


INDEX 


of  work  and  wages,  226;  picking, 
warping,  and  roping,  226,  227. 

Feathers,  woven  by  Algonquins,  22. 

Ferguson,  James,  his  method  of 
bleaching  with  lime,  114. 

Fernandina,  Island  of,  natives  use 
cotton,  40. 

Ferrero,  Guglielmo,  quoted,  60. 

Filling  throstle,  invented  at  Wal- 
tham,  195. 

Fire-proof  mill,  first  ever  built,  81. 

Fisher,  Joshua,  buys  site  for 
Beverly  Manufactory,  155. 

Flax,  known  to  the  Egyptians, 
17;  one  of  first  materials  used 
in  spinning,  24;  flax  plant, 
24-25;  preparation  of,  25;  Russia 
produces  largest  amount,  27; 
Belgian  flax  best  prepared,  27; 
spun  by  machinery,* 27;  Ameri- 
can grown  for  seed  only,  28; 
production  in  various  countries 
for  1909,  28;  invention  of  ma- 
chines for  spinning,  98;  its  cult- 
ure encouraged  by  legislative 
acts,  124,  125;  imported  by  col- 
onists, 128;  raised  by  the  col- 
onists, 131.  See  Linen,  Spinning. 

Florence,  Mass.,  silk  industry  es- 
tablished there,  56-57. 

Fly  shuttle,  invented  by  John  Kay, 
74-75;  first  used  in  America, 
153;  first  used  in  Rhode  Island, 
162. 

Francis,  James  B.,  stockholder, 
220. 

Frankford  Woolen  Mills,  218. 

Fullem,  John,  his  stocking  loom, 
162,  231. 

Fuller,  Thomas,  his  "Worthies  of 
England"  quoted,  61,  62. 

Fulling  mills,  erected  in  Massa- 
chusetts, 129-130. 

Fustians,  made  from  both  cotton 
and  wool,  37,  38;  made  by 
American  colonists,  126. 

Gazette     and      Country     Journal, 

quoted,  231. 
Gazette  of  the  United  States,  quoted, 

on  Boston  Sail  Cloth  Factory, 

159-160. 


Gennes,  M.  de,  tries  to  improve  the 
loom,  73. 

Georgia,  cultivation  of  cotton  in, 
41;  fourth  in  consumption  of 
cotton,  43;  progress  of  its  silk 
industry,  52. 

German  town,  130;  Mennonite 
stocking  industry,  212;  early 
woolen  industry,  212;  hand 
stocking  weavers,  212;  first  knit- 
ting mill  in  America,  212;  Eng- 
lish knitters  come,  212;  knitting 
mills,  218. 

Germantown    Hosiery   Mills,  218. 

Gilmore,  William,  introduces  power 
loom  into  Rhode  Island,  184, 
198;  his  loom  compared  with 
the  Waltham  loom,  184,  199; 
sells  his  drawings,  184. 

Globe  Mill,  Fall  River,  organized 
by  Col.  Joseph  Durfee,  222- 
223;  division  of  stock,  223;  orig- 
inal mill  burned,  223;  second 
mill  described,  223;  cleaning 
and  weaving  done  outside,  223; 
some  power  used,  223;  wages 
and  hours  of  labor,  223;  prod- 
•uct  crude,  224;  enterprise  a 
failure,  224;  mill  used  as  print 
works,  224;  present  owner, 
224. 

Globe  Mills,  Philadelphia,  one  of 
the  first  to  use  water  power, 
108;  mules  installed,  216. 

Globe  Yarn  and  Laurel  Lake  Mills 
Company,  224. 

Gobelin  Dye  Works,  Paris,  117. 

Golding,  Edmund,  helps  to  estab- 
lish the  Mansfield  Silk  Company, 
54;  builds  second  mill  at  Mans- 
field, 55. 

Goodhue,  Benjamin,  154. 

Graebe,  produces  vegetable  dyes, 
118. 

Grain,  grinding  of  encouraged, 
125;  decrease  in  value,  125. 

Green,  Col.  Job,  establishes  cotton 
mill  at  Centreville,  R.I.,  178. 

Green,  Timothy,  forms  partnership 
with  Slater,  175. 

Greene,  Mrs.  Nathanael,  aids  Eh* 
Whitney,  103-104. 


INDEX 


261 


Greene,  W.  R.,  sets  up  first  carpet 
loom  at  Amsterdam,  245. 

Gresham,  Sir  Thomas,  49. 

Grimshaw,  Messrs.,  their  factory 
burned  by  mob,  92. 

Grinnell,  Joseph,  aids  New  Bed- 
ford cotton  industry,  237-238; 
president  of  the  Wamsutta  Mills, 
238. 

Guilds,  for  weavers,  33;  as  a  fore- 
runner of  the  modern  factory  sys- 
tem, 59,  65. 

Gurleyville,  Conn.,  silk  mills  there, 
54;  silk  dyers  at,  55. 

Haarlem,  a  bleaching  centre, 
112. 

Hall,  Samuel,  manufactures  buck- 
ram, 132. 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  149,  154, 
156;  mentions  the  Slater  Mill, 
174;  founder  of  Paterson,  233. 

Hamilton  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany established,  208. 

Hanks,  Rodney  and  Horatio,  build 
first  American  silk  mill,  54. 

Hargreaves,  James,  34;  his  un- 
successful cotton  mill,  68,  73; 
sketch  of,  77-78;  helps  make 
carding  machine,  77;  his  spin- 
ning jenny,  77—78. 

Hartford  Woolen  Manufactory, 
first  large  woolen  mill  in  Amer- 
ica organized,  163;  receives 
State  aid,  163,  165;  weaves  suit 
for  Washington,  163-164;  qual- 
ity of  its  products,  163-165;  sold 
at  auction,  165. 

Harvard  College,  Senior  Class  wear 
homespun,  138. 

Hatchelling,  24. 

Haverhill,  Mass.,  duck  manufact- 
ure, 161. 

Hazard,  Rowland,  starts  a  fulling 
mill,  186;  begins  weaving  cloth, 
186;  first  to  use  water  power, 
186;  Peace  Dale  Manufacturing 
Company,  187. 

Heard,  Augustine,  establishes  stock- 
ing mills  at  Ipswich,  95. 

Heathcote,  Caleb,  quoted,   132. 

Heckling,  25. 


Heliogabalus,  Emperor,  wears  thin 
silk  47. 

Hellot,  Jean,  117. 

Hemp,  products  of  in  America  in 
1909,  28;  the  native  product 
used  by  the  colonists,  125; 
Connecticut  General  Assembly 
orders  the  raising  of,  125;  im- 
ported by  colonists,  128;  raised 
by  the  colonists,  131;  bounties 
on  granted,  133. 

Hemptinne,  M .  Jean  de,  quoted,  34. 

Henry  IT.  inaugurates  cloth  fair 
at  St.  Bartholomew,  33;  es- 
tablishes weavers'  guilds,  33; 
legislates  for  advancement  of 
woolen  manufacture,  33. 

Henry  IV.  of  Navarre,  establishes 
mulberry-trees  in  France,  49; 
invites  William  Lee  to  bring  his 
inventions  to  France,  94. 

Henry,  Thomas,  discovers  chlorine 
bleaching  process,  115;  perfects 
dyeing  machinery,  118. 

Herodotus,  makes  first  mention  of 
cotton,  36. 

Herrick,  Joshua,  employed  at  Bev- 
erly, 156. 

Hewson,  John,  first  calico  printer, 
140,  215;  reward  offered  for  his 
head,  140. 

Higginson,  Henry,  155. 

High,  Thomas,  his  claims  to  Ark- 
wright's  inventions,  80,  82. 

Hill,  H.  A.,  his  Memoir  of  Abbott 
Lawrence  quoted,  220. 

Hinckley  Knitting  Mills,  218. 

Hogg,  William,  218. 

Holden,  R.,  his  method  of  bleaching 
with  kelp,  113. 

Hollingsworth,  Col.  Henry,  manu- 
factures woolens,  189. 

Home,  Francis,  his  method  of 
bleaching  with  sulphuric  acid, 
113-114;  perfects  dyeing  ma- 
chinery, 118. 

Homer,  first  mentions  weaving, 
18. 

Hopkinson,  Thomas,  stockholder, 
219. 

Horrocks,  William,  invents  the 
crank,  or  Scotch,  loom,  106;  basis 


INDEX 


of  the  Waltham  loom,  106,  195; 
his  loom  introduced  into  Rhode 
Island,  184. 

Horstmann,  W.  H.,  manufactures 
silk,  213. 

Horstmann,  William  J.,  constructs 
power  looms,  213. 

Hosiery.     See  Stockings. 

Houlds worth,  Henry,  Jr.,  takes  out 
patent  on  Asa  Arnold's  inven- 
tion, 108;  patents  Samuel  Batch- 
elder's  stop-motion,  109-110. 

"Huguenot,"  clipper  ship,  lost  off 
Java,  21. 

Humphreys,  Col.  David,  brings 
merinos  to  America,  30. 

Hurd,  Duane  Hamilton,  his  His- 
tory of  Middlesex  County 
quoted,  194. 

India,  methods  of  hand  weaving, 
21;  source  of  cotton  industry, 
36,  37;  learns  silk  industry  from 
Chinese,  46. 

India,  British,  second  in  produc- 
tion of  cotton,  35. 

Indians,  American,  weaving,  20; 
Algonquin  feather  weaving, 
22. 

Indigo,  artificially  produced,  118. 

International  Congress  of  Cotton 
Manufacturers,  34. 

Ipswich,  Mass.,  John  Manning's 
woolen  mill,  166. 

Ipswich  Mills,  history  of,  95-96. 

Jack  of  Newbury.  See  Winch- 
combe,  John. 

Jackson,  Daniel,  makes  textile  ma- 
chines, 161. 

Jackson,  Patrick  Tracy,  establishes 
The  Waltham  Company,  192, 
193,  194;  care  of  employees, 
196;  shareholder  of  the  Essex 
Company,  220. 

Jacquard,  Joseph  Marie  Charles, 
sketch  of  his  life  and  inventions, 
96-98;  his  machine  for  making 
fish-nets  receives  gold  medal, 
96;  his  interview  with  Napoleon, 
97;  his  loom,  97;  his  loom  first 
used  in  America,  213. 


James  I.,  of  England,  sends  silk- 
worms to  Virginia,  51. 

Jarvis,  William,  brings  merinos 
to  America,  30. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  letter  to  M.  de 
Warville  quoted,  144;  cited, 
147;  inaugurated  in  American 
woolens,  189. 

Jenks,  Alfred,  makes  cotton  ma- 
chinery, 216. 

Johnson,  Edward,  his  "Wonder- 
working Providence"  cited,  42; 
quoted,  126. 

Johnson,  Thomas,  invents  the 
dandy  loom,  106-107. 

Johnson,  Sir  William,  his  mill  at 
Amsterdam,  245. 

Joint  Stock  Company,  first  one 
organized  at  Philadelphia,  215. 

Jones,  Aaron,  218. 

Justinian,  Emperor,  his  decree 
ruins  silk  merchants,  47;  estab- 
lishes silk  industry  in  Europe, 
47,  48. 

Jute,  products  of  in  America  in 
1909,  28. 

Kay,  John,  34,  73;  sketch  of, 
74-76;  improves  the  reed,  74; 
his  fly  shuttle,  74-75;  infringe- 
ment of  his  patents,  75;  mobbed 
because  of  his  inventions,  75-76; 
English  government  refuses  him 
aid,  76;  dies  in  France,  76. 

Kay,  John,  clock  maker  of  Warren- 
ton,  assists  Arkwright,  78,  80; 
witness  against  Arkwright,  82. 

Kay,  Robert,  invents  drop-box, 
76. 

Kelp,  used  for  bleaching,  113. 

Kendrew,  John,  inventor  of  ma- 
chines for  spinning  flax,  98. 

Kentucky,  cotton  mills,  190. 

Knitting,  early  history  of,  92-93; 
Rev.  Wm.  Lee  invents  knitting 
machine,  93;  Queen  Elizabeth 
refuses  him  patents,  93-94;  Lee 
constructs  a  machine  for  making 
silk  stockings,  94 ;  Strutt's  ribbed 
stocking  frame,  94;  first  mill 
in  America,  212;  workmen 
brought  under  one  roof,  212; 


INDEX 


263 


English  workmen  come  to  Ger- 
man town,  212;  mills  at  Phila- 
delphia, 218. 

Labor.     See  Employees,  Wages. 

Lafayette  blue,  218. 

Lake  Dwellings  of  Switzerland, 
ruins  contain  rude  fabrics,  15. 

Lancaster,  Eng.,  34 ;  causes  of  con- 
centration of  textile  industry  in, 
63-64. 

Lathrop  and  Eells,  Norwich,  Conn., 
181-182. 

Lawrence,  Abbott,  209;  stock- 
holder of  Merrimac  Water  Power 
Association,  219;  Lawrence 
named  for  him,  220;  founder  of 
the  Essex  Company,  220,  221; 
memoir  of,  quoted,  220;  buys 
rights  of  the  Water  Power  Com- 
pany, 220-221;  president  of 
the  Pacific  Mills,  221. 

Lawrence,  Amos  A.,  56;  operates 
his  mills  at  a  loss,  95,  209. 

Lawrence,  Charles,  offers  woolens 
for  sale,  212. 

Lawrence,  John  S.,  compares  old 
and  new  methods  of  production, 
250. 

Lawrence,  Samuel,  stockholder, 
219,  220. 

Lawrence,  William,  stockholder, 
220. 

Lawrence,  Mass.,  leads  in  produc- 
tion of  worsted  goods,  210;  value 
of  production,  211;  Daniel  Saun- 
ders  discovers  and  secures  the 
water  powers,  218-219;  Mem- 
mac  Water  Power  Association, 
219,  220-221;  naming  the  town, 
219-220;  the  Essex  Company, 
220-221;  great  dam  built,  221; 
town  laid  out,  221;  the  Wash- 
ington Mill,  221;  other  mills 
started,  221;  population  and 
textile  statistics,  222. 

Lawrence  and  Co.,  agents  of  Whit- 
tenton  Cotton  Mills,  180. 

Lawrence  Company,  established, 
209. 

Lebermann,  produces  vegetable 
dyes,  118. 


Lee,  Rev.  William,  his  stocking 
machines,  93-94;  Queen  Eliza- 
beth refuses  him  patents,  93-94 ; 
goes  to  France,  94. 

Leffingwell,  Christopher,  weaves 
stockings,  181. 

Leigh,  Lewis,  first  successful  silk 
dyer  in  United  States,  55. 

L'Enfant,  Major,  superintendent 
of  the  Paterson  Mills,  234-235. 

Leonard,  James  and  Henry,  em- 
ployed at  Beverly,  154,  155;  es- 
tablish Iron  Works  at  Taunton, 
Mass.,  180. 

Levering,  Wigert,  early  weaver, 
211-212. 

Lewis,  Joseph,  his  weaving  mill  at 
Waterbury,  Conn.,  132. 

Lilly,  Alfred,  makes  silk  machinery, 
54. 

Lincoln,  Jonathan  Thayer,  his 
"The  Factory"  cited,  70; 
quoted,  249-250. 

Lindly,  Joshua,  makes  textile  ma- 
chines, 161. 

Linen,  known  in  prehistoric  ages, 
25-26;  introduced  into  Europe 
and  Asia,  26 ;  mentioned  in  early 
writings,  26;  manufacture  of 
in  France  and  Germany  in 
eleventh  century,  26;  exported 
from  Flanders  in  1250,  26; 
among  the  Anglo-Saxons,  26-27; 
weaving  of  in  Ireland,  27;  weav- 
ing of  in  Scotland,  27;  weaving 
of  a  Puritan  domestic  industry, 
27;  in  America  only  coarse 
forms  successful,  27,  28,  131; 
finest  produced  in  Scotland, 
Ireland,  and  Belgium,  27;  best 
yarn  from  Holland,  28;  great 
linen-producing  countries,  28; 
use  of  cotton  decreases  demand 
for,  98;  printing  of  at  Auers- 
burg,  119;  its  manufacture  en- 
couraged by  colonial  legislation, 
124-125,  126;  manufacture  of  at 
German  town,  Pa.,  130;  fabric 
most  used  by  the  colonists,  131, 
132;  manufactured  at  Lynn, 
132;  bounties  on,  133,  138; 
factories  erected,  187;  made  in 


264 


INDEX 


Fall  River,  229;  manufactured 
in  New  York,  242,  243.  See 
Flax,  Spinning. 

Lodge,  Henry  Cabot,  his  "Some 
Early  Memories"  cited,  157-158. 

Lombe,  John,  builds  silk  mill  at 
Derby,  50. 

Loom,  used  in  Bronze  Age,  16;  of 
Incas,  19,  20;  Chinese  legend  re- 
garding, 45 ;  loom  for  piece  goods 
built,  55;  Jacquard  loom  first 
used  in  Philadelphia,  55,  213; 
owned  by  weavers,  66;  Cart- 
wright's  power  loom,  69,  89-90, 
106;  attempts  to  improve  it, 
73-74;  Kay's  improvements, 
74-75;  looms  invented,  106; 
the  dandy  loom,  106-107;  Hor- 
rocks's  basis  of  first  practical 
American  loom,  106,  184;  ex- 
tended use  of  power  loom,  107, 
184;  invention  and  character- 
istics of  the  Northrop  loom,  110- 
111;  comparison  of  Gilmore's 
and  the  Waltham  loom,  184, 
194-195;  Horstmann's  power 
loom,  213;  Jenks's  power  loom 
for  checks,  216;  in  early  Fall 
River  mills,  226.  See  Weaving. 

Lowe,  H.  A.,  discovers  a  method  of 
procuring  silk  lustre,  121. 

Lowell,  Francis  Cabot,  his  Wal- 
tham loom  compared  with  Gil- 
more's, 184;  establishes  The 
Waltham  Company,  192,  194; 
birth  and  education,  193;  brings 
home  knowledge  of  English  tex- 
tile machines,  193;  his  power 
loom,  194,  195;  his  other  inven- 
tions, 195;  interview  with  Mr. 
Shepard,  of  Taunton,  195-196; 
secures  a  tariff  on  cotton,  197; 
urges  Rhode  Island  mill  owners 
to  use  power  loom,  198;  his  ar- 
rangement of  textile  processes, 
198;  his  system  of  mill  organiza- 
tion, 198;  shareholder  of  the 
Essex  Company,  220. 

Lowell,  John  A.,  stockholder,  220; 
buys  rights  of  the  Merrimac 
Water  Power  Association,  220- 
221. 


Lowell,  Mass.,  mill  privileges 
bought  by  Boott,  201,  202;  Mer- 
rimac Manufacturing  Company 
established,  203-204;  naming  of, 
205;  growth  of,  205;  other  cot- 
ton mills  started,  208-209;  cot- 
ton statistics  for  1911,  209;  a 
textile  centre,  210;  value  of  tex- 
tile products,  211. 

Lowell  Company  established,  209. 

Lyman,  Daniel,  introduces  power 
loom  into  Rhode  Island,  184, 
198;  his  mill  at  Woonsocket, 
246. 

Lyman,  George  W.,  stockholder, 
220. 

Lyman,  Theodore,  stockholder, 
220. 

Macauley,  Isaac,  makes  oil  cloths, 
217. 

Mack,  Alexander,  stocking  weaver, 
212. 

McKerries,  James,  weaves  cordu- 
roy in  East  Greenwich,  162,  230. 

Macquer,  his  experiments  in  dye- 
ing, 117. 

McRae,  John,  makes  silk  fringes, 
etc.,  56. 

Madison,  James,  quoted,  144; 
inaugurated  in  American  broad- 
cloth, 167. 

Magellan,  Ferdinand,  40. 

Malays,  method  of  weaving  cotton, 
21. 

Manchester,  Eng.,  a  textile  cen- 
tre, 34,  38,  39;  climate  favors 
textile  industry,  63;  weavers 
wear  five-pound  notes,  87; 
steam  looms  used  there,  107. 

Manchester,  N.H.,  a  textile  centre, 
210;  value  of  production,  211; 
its  history,  239-241;  named  in 
honor  of  Samuel  Blodgett,  239- 
240;  Benjamin  Pritchard's  cot- 
ton mill,  240;  Amoskeag  Cotton 
and  Wool  Manufactory,  240-241 ; 
Amoskeag  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany, 241;  town  laid  out,  241; 
wages,  241;  growth,  241. 

Mansfield,  Conn.,  its  silk  industry, 
53-55. 


INDEX 


265 


Marble,  Ezra,  makes  printing  ma- 

tjichine,  228. 

Marquesas  Islands,  natives  make 
Tappa  cloth  by  beating,  20. 

Maryland,  its  silk  industry,  53; 
first  woolen  mill,  189. 

Maryland  Journal,  cited,  188. 

Massachusetts,  leads  in  consump- 
tion of  cotton,  43;  appoints 
committee  to  investigate  textile 
machinery,  151-152;  grants  to 
inventors,  152-153;  acquires 
"The  State  Models,"  153;  its 
textile  industry  just  before 
Slater,  167;  first  use  of  Ark- 
wright's  machines,  176;  textile 
statistics  for  1812,  185. 

Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  Gen- 
eral Court  passes  acts  to  help 
the  textile  industry,  124-125, 
129,  136;  sheep  raising  in, 
129;  wool  exported  in  1675, 
130. 

Massachusetts  Company,  The,  es- 
tablished, 209. 

Massasoit  Steam  Mill,  228. 

Mause,  Daniel,  hosier,  214. 

Mellish,  John,  cited  on  Philadel- 
phia industries,  216. 

Mennonites,  start  hosiery  industry 
at  German  town,  212. 

Mercerizing    process,    its    history 

•"'and  application,  120-121. 

The  Mercury,  Salem,  quoted  in  re- 
gard to  the  Beverly  Cotton  Man- 
ufactory, 154,  155-156. 

Merino     sheep,     breeds     of,     30; 

'$  brought  to  America,  30. 

Merrimac,  first  name  for  Lawrence, 
219. 

Merrimac  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany, established  at  Lowell,  203; 
shareholders,  203;  canal  system 
improved,  204,  209;  mills  fitted 
up  with  Waltham  machinery, 
204;  first  cloth  of  poor  texture 
and  color,  204,  206;  builds 
mill  machinery,  204;  cylinder 
printing,  205-206 ;  printers 
leave,  206;  establish  mill  board- 
ing-houses, 206;  condition  of 
employees,  206-208. 


Merrimac  Water  Power  Associa- 
tion, 219,  220-221. 

Metacomet  Mill,  Fatt  River,  229. 

Mexico,  its  cotton  industry,  41; 
its  silk  industry,  51. 

Mill,  arrangement  established  by 
Lowell,  198;  organization,  198. 

Miller,  Phineas,  105. 

Miller,  Robert,  invents  power  loom, 
106. 

Monteith,  John,  equips  his  mill 
with  power  looms,  106. 

Moody,  Paul,  first  to  use  leather 
belts,  110;  constructs  power 
loom  for  Waltham,  194;  his 
other  inventions,  195;  visits 
the  Pawtucket  Falls,  200,  202- 
203;  employed  at  Lowell,  204. 

Moore,  Gov.,  of  New  York,  cited, 
135,  138,  242. 

Moors,  of  Spain,  first  to  raise  cot- 
ton in  Europe,  37. 

Mount  Nebo  Silk  Mills,  57. 

Mulberry-tree,  its  seeds  brought 
to  Constantinople  from  China, 
47,  48;  mulberry- tree  in  France, 
48-49;  Chinese  mulberry-tree 
brought  to  United  States,  55; 
the  "Mulberry  Craze,"  58. 

Mule,  The,  invented  by  Samuel 
Crompton,  83;  self-acting  first 
used  in  Fall  River,  228;  first 
used  in  America,  244. 

Murray,  G.  W.,  his  silk  mill,  236. 

Muslin  brought  from  India,  36; 
East  India  muslin  made  in  Eng- 
land, 85. 

Mussey,  T.  M.,  builds  loom  at 
Exeter,  N.H.,  106. 

Navajo  blankets,  20. 

Naz,  sheep  of,  30. 

Nearchus,  cited,  47. 

Nesmith,  John,  stockholder,  219, 
220. 

New  Bedford,  produces  finest  cot- 
ton goods,  210, 239 ;  value  of  pro- 
duction, 211;  beginning  of  its 
cotton  industry,  237;  prejudice 
against  the  industry,  237;  cap- 
ital raised,  237-238;  Wamsutta 
Mills  started,  238;  success  of 


266 


INDEX 


the  enterprise,  238-239;  Po- 
tomska  Mill,  238;  other  mills 
built,  239;  recent  textile  sta- 
tistics, 239. 

New  England,  textile  industry  in, 
122,  138-139;  slave  traffic  with 
the  West  Indies,  123,  127;  silk 
culture  in,  138;  capital  develops 
Southern  industries,  191;  ad- 
vantages for  cotton  manufact- 
ure, 193;  effect  of  textile  in- 
dustries on  shipping,  248-249. 

"New  England's  First  Fruits," 
quoted,  125-126. 

New  Hampshire,  consumption  of 
cotton,  43;  first  cotton  mills  in, 
179. 

New  Ipswich,  first  cotton  mill  in 
New  Hampshire  erected,  179. 

New  Jersey,  its  silk  industry,  53. 

New  York,  its  silk  industry,  53; 
Society  for  the  Promotion  of 
Arts  established,  138,  242;  linen 
manufacture  in,  138;  Society 
for  the  Encouragement  of  Amer- 
ican Manufactures,  170;  great- 
est centre  for  cutting  up  trade, 
210,  245;  value  of  production, 
211, 245;  Manufacturing  Society, 
242-243;  Dickson's  Cotton  Fac- 
tory, 243-244;  not  suited  for 
textile  industry,  242,  244. 

New  York  and  Northampton  Silk 
Company,  The,  56. 

New  York  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany, employs  Samuel  Slater, 
169;  history  of,  170,  242-243; 
its  object,  242;  character  of  the 
product,  243;  factory  described 
by  Slater,  243;  enterprise  a 
failure,  243. 

New  Zealand,  production  of  wool 
in  1909,  31. 

Newcomen,  Thomas,  his  steam- 
engine  perfected  by  James  Watt, 
99-100. 

Newell,  Robert,  calico  printer, 
232. 

News  Letter,  quoted,  137. 

Nickerson,  Capt.  Sylvanus,  de- 
scribes Malay  method  of  weav- 
ing cotton,  21. 


Nonatuck  Silk  Company,  56. 
North   Carolina,    consumption   of 

cotton,  43. 
North  Saugus,  linen  factory  built, 

187. 
Northrop,    James    H.,    invents    a 

loom,  110-111. 
Norwich,    Conn.,    early     stocking 

weaving  there,  181 ;  Lathrop  and 

Eells  cotton  manufactory,  181- 

182. 

Oglethorpe,  Gov.  James  Edward, 
gives  silk  to  Queen  Caroline, 
52. 

Oil  cloths,  made  in  Philadelphia, 
217. 

Oldham,  brings  wild  hemp  from 
Connecticut,  125. 

Oneida  County,  N.Y.,  first  cotton 
mill  erected,  179. 

Opdengrafe,  Abraham,  receives 
premium  for  linen,  211. 

Orr,  Col.  Hugh,  early  textile  ma- 
chinery made  at  his  works,  151, 
153;  makes  first  cannon  in 
America,  151;  first  in  America 
to  use  the  fly  shuttle,  153. 

Ottolengi,  Signor,  establishes  a  silk 
filature  in  Georgia,  52. 

Oxford  Carpet  Mills,  The,  218. 

Pacific  Mills,  Lawrence,  221. 

Panic,  first  one  in  New  England, 
125. 

Parkinson,  Adam,  perfects  print- 
ing method,  120. 

Paterson,  N.J.,  its  silk  industry, 
55,  210,  236;  value  of  produc- 
tion, 211;  founded  by  the  So- 
ciety for  the  Establishment  of 
Useful  Manufactures,  233-234; 
naming  of,  234;  water  power 
secured,  234;  plans  for  mills  and 
workmen's  houses,  234;  fac- 
tory equipped  and  opened,  235; 
enterprise  a  failure,  235;  mill 
used  for  other  purposes,  235- 
236;  water  rights  valuable,  236; 
first  silk  mill,  236;  character  of 
silk  products,  236. 

Paul,  Lewis,  73;  his  inventions,  77. 


INDEX 


267 


Pawtucket,  Slater's  mill,  171-175; 
industries  affected  by  the  War 
of  1812,  198;  a  textile  centre, 
210;  value  of  production,  211. 

Peace  Dale  Manufacturing  Com- 

:    pany,  its  history,  186-187. 

Pearson,  John,  erects  first  cloth 
mill  in  United  States,  126. 

Peck,  Lewis,  manufactures  cotton 
in  Rhode  Island,  161;  sells  ma- 
chine to  Moses  Brown,  162, 
172. 

Peel,  Sir  Robert,  offers  partnership 
to  Crompton,  86. 

Penelope,  goddess  of  weaving, 
18. 

Penn,  John,  quoted  on  Philadel- 
phia industries,  214,  216. 

Pennsylvania,  its  silk  industry,  53; 
Society  for  the  Encouragement 
of  Manufactures,  history  of, 
148-150;  may  have  established 
first  American  cotton  mill,  149; 
its  textile  industry  just  before 
Slater,  167;  encourages  home 
industries,  215. 

Pepys,  Samuel,  quoted,  39. 

Perrot,  his  process  of  block  print- 
ing, 120. 

Perry,  Nathaniel,  his  linen  mill  at 
North  Saugus,  187. 

Philadelphia,  its  silk  manufacture, 
55;  societies  for  the  promotion 
of  manufactures  established, 
139-140,  148-150,  215;  leading 
textile  city  in  United  States,  210; 
greatest  producer  of  hosiery  and 
knit  goods,  210;  annual  produc- 
tion, 211 ;  stocking  industry,  212, 
214;  woolen  industry,  212,  213- 
215;  first  knitting  mill  in  Amer- 
ica, 212;  silk  industry,  213;  fila- 
tures established,  213;  English 
silk  throwsters  come.  213;  Jac- 
quard  loom  first  used,  213;  sheep 
killing  prohibited,  214;  the 
"Hand  in  Hand"  Stocking  Man- 
ufactory, 214;  home  manufac- 
tures encouraged,  214,  216;  first 
joint  stock  company  organized, 
215;  a  centre  for  textile  machin- 
ery, 215-216;  its  carpet  industry, 


216-217;  textile  statistics,  217- 
218;  merchants  ask  for  textile 
tariff,  217. 

Picking  machine,  Blair's,  first  used, 
226. 

Pierpont,  John,  erects  mills  in  Rox- 
bury,  129. 

Pioneer  Hosiery  Mills,  Amster- 
dam, 246. 

Plate  speeder,  an  American  in- 
vention, 109. 

Pliny,  quoted,  36;  cited,  47,  112; 
cited,  on  art  of  dyeing,  116. 

Pocasset  Manufacturing  Company, 
227. 

Polo,  Marco,  describes  cotton,  37. 

Porthouse,  Thomas,  invents  ma- 
chines for  spinning  flax,  98. 

Potomska  Mill,  New  Bedford, 
238. 

Potter,  Nathaniel,  receives  bounty 
for  linen  manufacture,  132,  133. 

Prince,  John  D.,  205. 

Printing,  its  history  from  the 
earliest  times,  119-120;  first 
print  works  in  England,  119; 
block  printing,  119-120,  232; 
Perrotine,  plate,  and  cylinder 
printing,  120;  cylinder  printing 
at  Lowell,  205-206. 

Pritchard,  Benjamin,  starts  mill 
at  Goffstown,  N.H.,  240;  it 
becomes  the  Amoskeag  Com- 
pany, 240. 

Proprietors  of  the  Locks  and 
Canals  on  the  Merrimac  River, 
127;  its  stock  sold  to  the  Merri- 
mac Company,  202,  203. 

Providence,  R.I.,  beginning  of 
cotton  industry,  161-162,  230; 
uses  Beverly  models,  161,  230; 
attempt  to  make  corduroy,  162, 
231;  arrival  of  Samuel  Slater, 
171,  231;  Almy,  Brown  &  Slater, 
171-175;  first  steam  mill,  184; 
great  textile  centre,  210;  value 
of  production,  211;  cotton  in- 
dustry in  1789,  231;  early 
thread  and  stocking  industries, 
231;  calico  printing,  231-232; 
textile  statistics,  232. 

Prussian  blue,  218. 


268 


INDEX 


Rehoboth,  Mass.,  the  Slater  mill, 
175-176;  second  mill  built,  178. 

Revolution,  American,  effect  on 
American  textile  industry,  53, 
140-141,  213,  214. 

Rhoades,  Alonzo  E.,  invents  a 
shuttle-changing  loom,  110. 

Rhode  Island,  consumption  of  cot- 
ton, 43;  beginning  of  the  cotton 
industry,  161-162;  use  Beverly 
models,  161;  attempt  to  make 
corduroy,  162;  manufacture  of 
stockings,  162;  calico  printing, 
162;  its  textile  industry  just 
before  Slater,  167;  Samuel  Sla- 
ter's mills,  171-175;  second 
cotton  mill  in,  178;  introduc- 
tion of  power  loom,  184,  199; 
textile  statistics  for  1812,  185; 
beginning  of  power  woolen  mills, 
186-187.  See  also  Providence, 
Woonsocket. 

Rhode  Island  System  versus  the 
Waltham  System,  198-200. 

Ribbons,  manufactory  at  Balti- 
more, 56. 

Richards,  F.  G.,  215. 

Richards,  Mark,  216. 

Richmond,  Charles,  manufactures 
cotton  at  Taunton,  Mass., 
180. 

Richmond,  first  print  works  in 
England  there,  119. 

Ridgeway,  Mr.,  improves  the 
bleaching  processes,  115. 

Ring  spinning,  developed,  109; 
ring  spinner  invented  by  John 
Sharp,  110. 

Rixford,  Nathan,  builds  silk  ma- 
chines, 54. 

Robbins,  Charles,  builds  cotton 
mill,  179. 

Roberts,  Lewis,  his  "Treasures  of 
Traffic,"  cited  38. 

Robeson,  Andrew,  starts  first  print 
works  in  Fall  River,  228;  mill 
develops  into  the  American  Print 
Works,  228. 

Robinson,  Mrs.  Harriet  Hanson, 
her  "Loom  and  Spindle  "  quoted, 
206. 

Rock  Day,  73. 


Rogers,  Ezekiel,  settles  at  Rowley, 

Mass.,  126. 
Rogers,  Richard,  his  duck  weaving 

mill,  132. 
Rope-making    machine,    invented 

by  Cartwright,  91. 
Rowley,  Mass.,  site  of  first  cloth 

mill  in  the  United  States,  42, 

126-127. 
Royal  Society  of  London,  publish 

"An  Apparatus,  etc.,   to   assist 

Dyers,"  117. 
Rucellai,  of  Florence,  make  purple 

dye,  116. 

Runge,  Ferdinand  Friedrich,  dis- 
covers aniline  dyes,  118. 
"Runs  of  stone,"  127. 
Russell,  William,  181. 
Russia,  produces    largest  amount 

of   flax,   27;    its   production   of 

cotton,  35. 
Ryle,  John,  "father  of  American 

silk  industry,"  builds  first  loom 

for    piece    goods,    55;     his    silk 

mills  at  Paterson,  236. 

St.  Aubon,  Guipape  de,  brings 
white  mulberry-tree  to  France, 
48. 

St.  Distaff's  Day,  73. 

Salem,  Mass.,  duck  manufacture, 
161. 

Sargent,  Ignatius,  director  of  the 
Essex  Company,  221. 

Saunders,  Daniel,  discovers  and 
secures  water  power  of  the 
Merrimac,  218-219;  forms  the 
Merrimac  Water  Power  Associ- 
ation, 219;  names  Merrimac, 
219;  forms  the  Essex  Company, 
220. 

Saunders,  Daniel,  Jr.,  stockholder, 
219. 

Savannah,  reeling  establishment 
founded  there,  52. 

Schaub,  Tissot  &  Dubosque,  begin 
calico  printing  in  Providence, 
231-232. 

Scheele,  C.  W.,  discovers  use  of 
chlorine  for  bleaching,  114. 

Scholfield,  Arthur,  comes  from 
England,  165-166;  employed 


INDEX 


269 


by  Newburyport  Woolen  Man- 
ufactory, 166;  his  woolen  mill 
at  Pittsfield,  167. 

Scholfield,  John,  comes  from  Eng- 
land, 165-166;  employed  by  the 
Newburyport  Woolen  Manufac- 
tory, 166 ;  builds  first  woolen  mill 
in  Connecticut,  166;  his  mill  at 
Stonington,  Conn.,  167;  weaves 
broadcloth  for  the  President, 
167. 

Scotland,  linen  weaving  in,  27; 
bleaching,  113. 

Scrutching,  24. 

Seaconnet  Mill,  Fall  River,  adopts 
the  Northrop  loom,  110. 

Semiramis,  Queen,  18,  36. 

Shakespeare,  William,  refers  to  the 
bleaching  process,  112. 

Sharp,  John,  invents  the  ring 
spinner,  110. 

Sheep,  coat  changed  from  hair  to 
wool  by  breeding,  29;  breeds  of, 
29-31;  first  mention  of  in  Eng- 
land, 30;  merinos  brought  to 
America,  30;  Lincoln  rams, 
31;  number  raised  in  1910, 
31-32;  domestic  in  Britain  be- 
fore the  Roman  Conquest,  32; 
raising  restricted  in  England, 
33;  raising  of  among  American 
colonists,  123,  126,  129;  their 
exportation  from  England  pro- 
hibited, 129;  killing  restricted 
in  Philadelphia,  214.  See  also 
Wool. 

Shepard,  Benjamin,  starts  cotton 
mill  at  Wrentham,  Mass.,  177- 
178. 

Shepard,  Silas,  of  Taunton,  makes 
winding  machines,  196. 

Shepard,  Mrs.,  exchanges  goods  for 
a  chaise,  177-1 78. 

Si-ling-chi,  the  "Goddess  of  Silk- 
Worms,"  45-46;  said  to  have  in- 
vented the  loom,  46. 

Silk,  derivation  of  name,  43; 
thought  to  grow  upon  trees, 
43;  secreted  by  spiders  and 
silkworms,  43-44;  statistics  of 
production,  44-45;  history  of, 
45-58;  Chinese  legend  of  origin 


of  silk  making,  45;  from  China 
the  art  spreads  to  Japan  and 
Europe,  46,  47-48;  used  by 
higher  classes  in  Rome,  47;  used 
in  England,  48;  importation 
of  prohibited  in  England,  48, 
50;  trade  in  France,  48;  silk 
industry  in  England,  49-51; 
industry  in  America,  51-58, 
138;  England  removes  duties 
on  American  silk,  51,  52;  the 
Revolution  suspends  the  silk 
industry,  53;  American  silk 
inferior,  53 ;  first  mill  in  America 
at  Mansfield,  Conn.,  54;  mills  at 
Paterson,  N.J.,  55,  210,  236; 
first  successful  dyeing  in  United 
States,  55;  English  weavers 
come  to  United  States,  55;  tariff 
of  1861,  55;  "Mulberry  Craze" 
checks  industry,  58;  raw  silk 
used  in  United  States  imported, 
58;  industry  in  Philadelphia, 
213.  See  also  Ribbons. 

Silk  machinery,  that  first  used  in 
England  crude,  50;  copied  from 
Italian,  50. 

Silk  throwing  mill,  first  in  Eng- 
land, 50. 

Silkworm,  described,  44,  46;  eggs 
brought  from  China,  48. 

Skinner,  William,  his  silk  industry, 
57. 

Slater,  John,  brings  knowledge  of 
English  improvements  in  textile 
machines,  183;  helps  establish 
mill  at  Slatersville,  183. 

Slater,  Samuel,  early  history,  168; 
emigrates  secretly  to  America, 
169;  finds  employment  in  New 
York,  169;  corresponds  with 
Moses  Brown,  169-170,  243; 
goes  to  Providence,  171;  part- 
nership with  Almy  and  Brown, 
171;  constructs  machines  on 
Arkwright's  models,  172;  makes 
Earl's  cards  work,  172;  starts 
mill  at  Pawtucket,  173;  uses 
cotton  warp,  173;  reduces  price 
of  cloth,  174 ;  payment  and  disci- 
pline of  employees,  174;  es- 
tablishes first  Sunday-school, 


270 


INDEX 


174;  markets  for  his  yarns,  174- 
175,  176;  rapidity  of  produc- 
tion, 175;  Samuel  Slater  and 
Co.  build  mill  at  Rehoboth, 
Mass.,  175;  begins  weaving 
cotton,  176;  his  influence  on 
cotton  industry,  179,  185,  222, 
233;  erects  first  steam  mill,  184; 
buys  the  Amoskeag  Mill,  240. 

Slatersville,  R.I.,  cotton  mill,  183. 

Slaves  exchanged  for  West  Indian 
cotton  and  rum,  123,  127. 

Soapstone,  used  for  rollers,  195. 

Social  Manufacturing  Company, 
Woonsocket,  246. 

Society  for  the  Establishment  of 
Useful  Manufactures,  founds 
Paterson,  233-234,  236. 

Somers,  Thomas,  petitions  the 
Massachusetts  legislature  for  aid, 
152;  constructs  textile  machines, 
153;  "The  State  Models,"  153; 
employed  at  Beverly,  154,  156. 

South  Africa,  production  of  wool 
in  1909,  31. 

South  Carolina,  cultivation  of  cot- 
ton in,  41,  146;  consumption  of 
cotton,  43;  silk  industry,  52; 
first  cotton  mill,  188. 

Southern  states,  produce  largest 
amount  of  cotton  in  the  world, 
35;  beginning  and  growth  of 
its  cotton  crop,  41,  144-147, 
190;  Sea  Island  cotton,  145- 
147;  development  of  cotton 
manufacture  in,  187-191;  supply 
Fall  River  cotton  mills,  225. 

Southwark,  early  bleachery  there, 
112. 

Spear  side,  73. 

Spider,  silk-producing,  43-44. 

Spindle,  found  in  ruins  of  Swiss 
Lake  Dwellers,  15;  used  in 
Bronze  Age,  16;  of  the  Incas, 
19;  description  of,  71. 

Spinning,  evidences  of  in  pre- 
historic times,  13-16;  traditions 
as  to  origin,  17;  progress  of  art 
from  East  to  West,  22;  ma- 
chinery first  used  in  Ireland, 
27;  schools  for  in  England,  27; 
Britons  taught  by  Romans,  32; 


Angles  and  Saxons  had  knowl- 
edge of,  32;  a  by-product  of 
farm  life,  62;  separated  from 
agriculture,  64;  spinners  be- 
coming a  separate  class,  66; 
method  of  in  early  times,  71-72; 
construction  of  spinning  wheel, 
72,  73;  whole  operation  under 
one  roof,  68,  81;  Crompton's 
"mule"  makes  fine  spinning 
possible,  85;  statistics  of,  for 
1812,  87;  introduction  of  ring 
spinning,  109;  in  American  col- 
onies, 123;  classes  formed,  129, 
138;  Boston  spinning  craze, 
135-137;  bounties  offered,  138. 
See  Loom,  Textile  industry, 
Weaving. 

Spinning  frame,  invented  by  Ark- 
wright,  80-82;  constructed  at 
Providence,  161;  constructed 
by  Slater,  172. 

Spinning  jenny,  invented  by  James 
Hargreaves,  77-78;  Christopher 
Tully's,  140. 

Spinning  wheel,  history  of,  72; 
value  of  in  colonial  times,  123. 

Spinster,  73. 

Sprague,  William  Peter,  makes 
carpets,  216-217. 

Springfield,  Mass.,  duck  manu- 
facture, 161. 

Star  Hosiery  Mills,  Amsterdam, 
245. 

Stark  Mill,  Manchester,  N.H., 
241. 

"State  Models,  The,"  exhibited  in 
Massachusetts,  153. 

Steam-engine,  60;  first  used  for 
cotton  manufacturing,  69;  Cart- 
wright's  improvements,  91; 
Watt's  improvements,  99-100; 
first  used  in  Fall  River,  228. 

Stevens,  Nathaniel,  stockholder, 
219. 

Stockings,  49-50,  92;  Queen  Eliza- 
beth's silk  stockings,  50,  94; 
invention  of  stocking  machin- 
ery, 93-94;  Strutt's  mills  at 
Derby,  95;  the  Ipswich  Mills, 
95-96;  industry  at  Germantown, 
Pa.,  130,  212;  woven  at  East 


INDEX 


271 


Greenwich,  162;  industry  in 
Connecticut,  181;  hand  stock- 
ing weaving,  212;  made  in  Phil- 
adelphia, 214;  industry  at  Am- 
sterdam, 245,  246. 

Stockport,  Eng.y  steam  looms  used 
there,  107. 

Stop-motion,  invented  by  Samuel 
Batchelder,  109. 

Storrow,  Charles  S.,  engineer  of 
the  Essex  Company,  220,  221. 

Stratford,  Mass.,  duck  manufact- 
ure, 161. 

Straw,  Ezekiel,  engineer  of  the 
Amoskeag  Mills,  240-241. 

Strutt,  Jedediah,  81;  invents 
ribbed  stocking  frame,  94;  his 
stocking  mills  at  Derby,  95; 
Slater  his  apprentice,  168. 

Sturgis,  William,  shareholder,  220; 
director  of  Essex  Company,  221. 

Suffolk  Company,  established,  209. 

Suffolk  County  Court  Records, 
quoted,  123. 

Sulphuric  acid,  used  in  bleaching, 
113-114. 

Surnames,  English,  derived  from 
the  textile  industry,  63. 

Swivel's  loom,  74. 

Taft,  Royal  C.,  cited,  165. 
Tappa  cloth,  made  from  cloth  tree 

by  beating,  20. 
Tariff,  of  1816,  197,  232;  of  1861, 

55;  ad  valorem  duty,  217. 
Taunton,   Mass.,   the  Whittenton 

Cotton  Mills,  180-181. 
Taunton    Speeder,    invented     by 

George  Danforth,  109;    used  in 

England,  109. 
Teake,  Richard,  letter  quoted,  146; 

first  to  raise  cotton  extensively 

in  the  South,  146. 
Tenant,     Charles,     his    bleaching 

process,  115. 

Textile  cities,  in  order  of  produc- 
tion, 210. 
Textile  industry,  in  America,  its 

history,  122;    first  settlers  bring 

knowledge  of  from  England,  122; 

climatic  conditions  and  distance 

from    England    foster    it,    122; 


colonial  legislation  aids  it,  124- 
125,  128,  129,  132-133;  first 
cloth  mill  at  Rowley,  Mass.,  126; 
textile  mills  began  in  stone  water 
mills,  123,  127;  English  efforts 
to  hamper  it,  128-129,  130; 
at  the  beginning  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, 137-139;  greatly  devel- 
oped during  the  Revolution,  140; 
just  before  Slater,  167;  statistics 
of,  about  1812,  185;  the  great 
textile  centres,  210-211;  nature 
of  the  products,  211;  amount 
and  value  of  the  output  in  1909, 
211;  its  economic  and  social 
aspects,  248 ;  statistics  of  growth, 
249.  See  Cotton,  Silk,  Spin- 
ning, Weaving,  Wool. 

Textile  machinery,  era  of  inven- 
tion, 71-121;  England  prohibits 
its  exportation,  139;  Christopher 
Tully's  spinning  jenny,  140; 
American  efforts  to  secure  Eng- 
lish machines,  141-142;  made  in 
Philadelphia,  215-216. 

Textiles,  in  prehistoric  times,  13-16; 
found  in  barrows  of  Early  Bret- 
ons, 16;  among  Cliff  Dwellers 
of  America,  16;  among  ancient 
Peruvians,  19;  English  products 
inferior,  33.  See  Cotton,  Silk, 
Spinning,  Weaving,  Wool. 

Thorndike,  Israel,  155. 

Thread,  cotton,  first  made  in 
America,  175. 

Throckmorton,  Sir  John,  has  a  suit 
made  on  a  wager,  100-101. 

Tiberius,  Emperor,  prohibits  men 
from  wearing  silk,  47. 

Tiverton  Print  Works,  224. 

Toad,  Mr.,  invents  a  loom,  106. 

Toby,  Mr.,  of  Lynn,  gets  bounty  on 
cloth,  128. 

Trade-mark,  first  one,  used  at 
Beverly,  155. 

Tremont  Company,  established, 
209. 

"Trial,"  ship,  brings  cotton  to 
Boston,  123. 

Troy  Cotton  and  Woolen  Manu- 
factory, 224-225;  power  looms 
installed,  226. 


272 


INDEX 


Troy  Manufactory  Company,  224- 

225. 
Tyler,  Jonathan,  stockholder,  219, 

220. 

Union  Cotton  Factory,  Fall  River, 
227. 

United  Company  of  Philadelphia, 
etc.,  history  of,  139-140,  148; 
first  joint  stock  company,  215. 

United  Kingdom,  production  of 
wool  in  1909,  31. 

United  States.  See  Textile  in- 
dustry in  America. 

Uruguay,  production  of  wool  in 
1909,  31. 

Vallentine,  Edward,  first  success- 
ful silk  dyer  in  United  States, 
55. 

Vandausen,  Herman,  first  calico 
printer  in  Rhode  Island,  162, 231. 

Vaucanson,  Jacques  de,  his  au- 
tomatons furnish  ideas  to  Jac- 
quard,  97. 

Virgil,  cited,  47. 

Virginia,  cultivation  of  cotton,  41; 
attempt  to  establish  silk  in- 
dustry there,  51,  53. 

Wadsworth,  Jeremiah,  stockholder 
of  Hartford  Woolen  Manu- 
factory, 163;  buys  the  busi- 
ness, 165. 

Wages  in  Slater's  mill,  174;  paid 
in  money  at  Waltham,  196,  200; 
paid  in  merchandise,  199-200; 
in  Col.  Durfee's  mill,  223;  in 
other  Fall  River  mills,  226;  of 
the  Amoskeag  Company,  241; 
in  New  York,  244. 

Walcott,  Benjamin  S.,  builds  cot- 
ton mill,  179. 

Walcott,  Benjamin  S.,  Jr.,  erects 
cotton  mill  in  New  York,  179. 

Waltham  Company,  establishes 
the  first  cotton  mill  run  com- 
pletely by  power,  192;  incor- 
porated, 194;  capital,  194; 
Lowell's  power  loom,  194-195; 
description  of  the  mill,  194; 
first  cloth  made,  194;  textile 


machines  invented  by  Moody 
and  Lowell,  195;  enterprise 
extended,  196;  regular  wages 
paid  employees,  196,  200;  mill 
boarding-houses,  196,  200;  char- 
acter of  employees,  196;  sale 
of  goods,  197;  the  Waltham 
system  compared  with  the 
Rhode  Island  system,  198-200; 
children  not  employed,  200; 
success  of,  200. 

Waltham  System  versus  the  Rhode 
Island  System,  198-200. 

Wamsutta  Mills,  New  Bedford, 
238-239. 

War  of  1812,  its  effect  upon  the 
textile  industry,  197,  200,  217. 

Ward,  Benjamin  C.,  and  Co.,  sell- 
ing agents  for  Waltham  Mills, 
197. 

Waring,  Elijah,  commission  mer- 
chant, 175. 

Warp,  supplied  by  employer,  67; 
warping  mills  established,  67; 
improved  by  Arkwright's  in- 
ventions, 79,  82;  of  cotton,  used 
at  Pawtucket,  173;  warper  in- 
vented at  Waltham,  195;  cotton 
replaces  linen,  227. 

Washington,  George,  brings  spin- 
ners, weavers,  and  sheep  from 
England,  30;  visits  the  Beverly 
Cotton  Manufactory,  157-158; 
describes  the  Boston  Sail  Cloth 
Factory,  160;  inaugurated  in 
suit  of  Hartford  manufacture, 
163;  letter  quoted,  163-164; 
Washington  Mill,  Lawrence, 
221. 

Water  frame,  used  in  Arkwright's 
mill,  68;  wide  use  of  in  England, 
143.  See  Spinning  frame. 

Water  power,  used  for  cotton  mills, 
68;  of  New  York  mill,  244. 

Waterman,  Rufus  and  Elisha,  build 
cotton  mill,  179. 

Watt,  James,  his  steam-engine 
first  used  in  cotton  manufactur- 
ing, 69;  his  improvements  upon 
Newcomen's  steam-engine,  99- 
100;  uses  chlorine  process  for 
bleaching,  114. 


INDEX 


273 


Weaving,  in  prehistoric  times,  14- 
16;  traditions  of  its  origin,  17, 
18;  by  Malays,  21;  by  hand 
weavers  of  India  and  China,  21 ; 
machinery  first  used  in  Ireland, 
27;  immigrations  of  Flemish 
weavers  to  England,  33;  weavers' 
guilds  established,  33;  a  by- 
product of  English  farm  life,  62; 
separated  from  agriculture,  64- 
65;  women  replaced  by  men,  67; 
legal  terms,  73;  Kay's  improve- 
ments change  method  of,  75; 
among  American  colonists,  123, 
129,  133.  See  Cotton,  Loom, 
Textile  industry,  Wool. 

Weft,  made  by  weavers,  67. 

Wells,  Obadiah,  his  linen  manu- 
factory, 138. 

West  Houghton,  steam  looms  used 
there,  107. 

West  Indies,  exchange  cotton  and 
rum  for  slaves,  123, 127. 

Wetherill,  Samuel,  Jr.,  aids  Ameri- 
can manufactures,  139-140;  or- 
ganizes The  Pennsylvania  So- 
ciety for  the  Encouragement  of 
Manufactures,  148;  contracts 
to  supply  the  army  with  woolens, 
215. 

"Whiting  time,"  112. 

Whitman,  David,  237. 

Whitmarsh,  Samuel,  builds  silk 
mill  at  Florence,  Mass.,  56. 

Whitney,  Eli,  sketch  of  his  life 
and  inventions,  101-105;  his 
cotton  gin,  101-105;  his  inven- 
tion stolen,  104;  obtains  a 
grant  for  his  invention,  105; 
manufactures  firearms,  105; 
marriage  and  death,  105. 

"Whitsters,"  112. 

Whittemore,  Amos,  215,  216. 

Whittenton  Cotton  Mills,  Taun- 
ton,  Mass.,  history  of,  180-181. 

Wilkinson,  David,  builds  power 
looms,  184. 

Wilkinson,  Hannah,  makes  first 
cotton  thread  in  America,  175. 

Wilkinson,  Oziel,  constructs 
Slater's  machines,  172;  forms 
partnership  with  Slater,  175. 


Wilkinson,  William,  forms  part- 
nership with  Slater,  175. 

William  the  Conqueror,  33,  39. 

Willowing,  67. 

Wilmington,  Del.,  society  organ- 
ized for  the  encouragement  of 
American  industries,  189-190; 
early  cotton  mill,  190. 

Winchcombe,  John,  his  factory  the 
first  in  England,  61. 

Winding  machines,  made  by  Silas 
Shepard,  of  Taunton,  196. 

Winthrop,  John,  Governor  of  Massa- 
chusetts, orders  establishment  of 
runs  of  stone,  125;  his  sons  pro- 
mote trade  with  the  West  Indies, 
127. 

Winthrop,  John,  Jr.,  quoted, 
125. 

Wolcott,  Oliver,  stockholder, 
163. 

Women  in  industry.  See  Employ- 
ees, Wages. 

Wood  Worsted  Mill,  Lawrence, 
largest  in  the  world,  221. 

Wool,  used  in  Stone  Age,  14;  fab- 
rics of  found  in  ruins  of  Swiss 
Lake  Dwellers,  15;  woolen  cloth 
in  barrows  of  early  Britons,  16, 
32;  probably  first  material  used 
for  weaving,  16,  29;  known  to 
the  Egyptians,  17;  used  by 
Incas,  19;  manufacture  highly 
developed  in  Flanders,  22;  man- 
ufacture of  in  England,  23,  32- 
34 ;  of  animals  other  than  sheep, 
29;  grades  of,  30-31;  produc- 
tion of  in  sheep  raising  coun- 
tries in  1909,  31;  manufactures 
of  in  America  in  1909,  32;  ex- 
portation of  in  England,  33,  34; 
sources  of  for  New  England  col- 
onists, 123;  first  worsted  mill 
established  by  John  Cornish, 
130;  production  of  in  New  Eng- 
land, 127-128,  133;  nature  of 
New  England  products,  135; 
finer  grades  brought  from  Eng- 
land, 138-139;  manufacture  of 
in  Philadelphia,  212.  See  Sheep. 

Wool-combing  machine,  invented 
by  Cartwright,  91. 


274 


INDEX 


Woonsocket,  R.I.,  a  textile  centre, 
210;  value  of  production,  211; 
fine  water  power,  246;  Social 
Manufacturing  Company  formed 
for  making  cotton,  246;  its  mill 
and  machinery,  246-247;  other 
mills  started,  247;  character 
and  value  of  output,  247. 

Worcester,  Mass.,  early  attempt 
at  cotton  manufacture,  151, 
160. 

Working  classes.    See  Employees. 


Worsted,  first  mill  built  by  John 

Cornish,  130. 
Worthen,  Ezra,  200. 
Wrentham,  Mass.,  Benjamin  Shep- 

ard's  cotton  mill,  177-178. 
Wyatt,  John,  73;    his  inventions, 

77. 

Yarn,    how    made    in    Peru,  19; 

best   comes   from   Holland,  28; 

made     from     cotton,     82.  See 
Spinning. 


ERRATA 

Page    16.  For  Bretons  read  Britons. 

Page    73.  For  James  Crompton  read  Samuel  Crompton. 

Page  162.  For  McKerris  read  McKerries. 

Page  231.  For  Henry  Vandausen  read  Herman  Vandausen. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 


This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 
on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

iubject  to  immediate  recall. 


Renewed  books 

APR  1  3  1966 


-DUE 


END 


MAY  17  1966 

JAN  3  0  J9G7 


.PERIOD 


JUN1 


51970 


OCT151 


MAY  19  1971 


SEP  6 


SIM 


3  Q  1973 
MAR  14  1974 


LD  21-40m-5,'65 
(F4308slO)476 


ONE  WEEK 


tta — t- 


1  1977 
JN  1 


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General  Library 

University  of  California 

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C02M5511S7 


